


DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN. 1916. NO. 12 



PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN 

STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL 

SCHOOLS 



BY 



CHARLES HUBBARD JUDD 

DIRECTQR OF THE SCHCX)L OF EDUCATION OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

AND 

SAMUEL CHESTER PARKER 

DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OP EDUCATION OF THi; 
UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRI^mNG OFHCE 

I9I6 



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WfS. 



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1916, NO. 12 



PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN 

STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL 

SCHOOLS 



BY 

CHARLES HUBBARD lUDD '"^"^^ ' 

DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

AND 

SAMUEL CHESTER PARKER 

DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFHCE 

1916 



^ ^M/ 



v^ 






ADDITIONAL COPIES 

OF THIS PUnLICATION MAY BE PROCtJKED FROM 

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GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

AT 

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Do of D. 
MAY' 23 1916 



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^6 






CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Letter of transmittal 5 

Preface G 

Chapter I. — Introduction : Scope of the bulletin 7 

Chapter II. — Stati.stical comparison of colleges and normal schools 16 

Chapter III. — Purpose, number, and geographical distribution of services 

of State normal schools 22 

Chapter IV. — The administrative control of State normal schools 32 

Chapter V. — Practice-teaching facilities 47 

Chapter VI. — Students and graduates 5G 

Chapter VII. — Faculties of State normal schools Go 

Chapter VIII. — Normal-school costs 75 

Chapter IX. — General courses of study for high-school graduates 79 

Chapter X. — The oi'ganization of practice teaching 87 

Chapter XI. — The training of rural teachers 97 

Chapter XII. — Training of high-school teachers and conferring of degrees. 99 

Chapter XIII. — The training of teachers of special subjects 105 

Chapter XIV. — Program for development of normal-school standards 126 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington, Septemher S7, 1915. 

Sir: The value of the schools, and especially of the schools for 
younger children, depends almost wholly on the ability, knowledge, 
and skill of the teachers. Like every other complex and difficult art, 
the art of teaching can be acquired only through careful training 
and the conscious application of underlying principles. ' The con- 
sciousness of these facts has given rise in all culture countries to 
schools maintained at public cost for the purpose of giving young 
men and women preparing for teaching such instruction in principles, 
methods, and devices, and such practice in their application as will 
enable them to begin the work of teaching with some degree of cer- 
tainty of success. In this country such schools are called normal 
schools. Although the United States has done less for the prepara- 
tion of its teachers than other countries in proportion to expendi- 
tures for education and to numbers of children in school, there are 
in this country 235 State normal schools, with a total attendance of 
about 89,537 students and an annual expenditure of $8,970,377. These 
figures do not include municipal and private normal schools. A 
decade and a half ago appropriations for the support of these State 
normal schools were $2,510,934 and the annual enrollment of stu- 
dents was 44,808. Because of the large expenditures for normal 
schools and a growing appreciation of the importance of their place in 
our systems of public education, there is an increasing general desire 
for some intelligent accounting of their organization and work. For 
this reason and for the purpose of laying a foundation for such 
detailed studies of many specific phases of their organization and 
work as will aid in such modifications and readjustments as may 
seem desirable. Dr. Charles H. Judd, director of the school of educa- 
tion of the University of Chicago, and Dr. Samuel C. Parker, dean 
of the college of education of the University of Chicago, both special 
collaborators in this bureau, have, at my request, made a general 
preliminary study of these schools and have reported the results of 
their studies in the accompanying manuscript. I recommend that 
this manuscript be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education 
under the title " Problems Involved in Standardizing State Normal 
Schools." 

Respectfully submitted. 

P. P. Claxton, 

Comniissioner. 

The Secretary of the Interior. 

5 



PREFACE. 



This study of the State normal schools of the United States was 
undertaken at the request of the Bureau of Education in the summer' 
of 1914. The material uj3on which the study is based was furnished 
by the authorities of the State normal schools and of State depart- 
ments of education in the fall of 1914, in response to a request sent 
from the Bureau of Education. 

The plans for the bulletin were carefully organized by the authors 
working together. Chapters I and II and the concluding chapter 
were written primarily by Mr. Judd. The remaining chapters were 
written primarily by Mr. Parker. Each author revised his chapters, 
however, after they had been read and criticized by the other. As a 
consequence the bulletin presents a unified treatment of the whole 
topic. For the chapter on Administrative Control, Mr. D. R. Henry 
carried on in the spring of 1915 a rather elaborate study, based on 
an examination of the educational codes of all of the States and corre- 
spondence with many of the officers in charge of the normal schools in 
the States. Mr. J. B. Shouse rendered valuable assistance in connec- 
tion with certain of the statistical parts of the study. 
6 



PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN STANDARDIZING STATE 
NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



Chapter I. 
INTRODUCTION: SCOPE OF THE BULLETIN. 



Normal schools not now standardized. — Normal schools differ 
from each other very widely in organization, in admission require- 
ments, in courses of study, and in modes of instruction. The explana- 
tion of this lack of uniformity is to be found in the fact that normal 
schools have never been a part of the system of higher education 
evolved in this country. Normal schools have grown up in isolation. 
While the colleges have been in the closest touch with each other 
through the organization of entrance examination boards and ac- 
crediting institutions, while high schools have been brought together 
by standard definitions of units, normal schools have stood apart. 
The typical normal school derives its financial support from legisla- 
tive appropriations, receives its students without competition from 
a territory over which it exercises exclusive control, and has no diffi- 
culty in placing its graduates in positions which they regard as 
satisfactory. Furthermore, so urgent has been the demand in the 
country for teachers that school boards and superintendents have not 
been able to make rigid selections, with the result that standards of 
training have not been forced upon the normal schools from without. 

Organization determined hy accidental causes^ often fersonal. — 
In a situation where relative isolation has not compelled normal 
schools to define themselves to others there has been the largest 
opportunity for the play of personal influences. A strong president 
has often dominated the policies of a normal school to a degree that 
is almost unbelievable. The faculty sometimes has little or no voice 
in determining the courses or the modes of admission. There is no 
State authority in most of the States which is strong enough to de- 
termine what shall be done in normal schools. The result is that 
within a single State there are the widest variations. One president 
with the ambition to develop his institution into a degree-granting 
university goes on his way, while his neighbor uses the funds granted 
by the same legislature to develop a normal school which loudly 

7 



8 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

announces its objection to granting degrees and limits its activities 
rigidly to the training of elementary teachers. 

External causes stimulating movement toward standardization. — 
In recent years a number of causes have begun to break down the 
isolation of the normal school. First and foremost is the desire of 
normal graduates to enjoy the advantages of higher education in 
universities and colleges. The growth of summer schools at uni- 
versities and the frequent transfer of normal-school graduates to 
college and graduate coui^ses show with clearness the desire of teach- 
ers to enjoy the advantages of all kinds of higher education. Nor- 
mal schools, drawn into the current of higher education, have been 
called upon to announce more definitely their requirements for ad- 
mission and to describe the content of their courses. What is a 
course in methods of teaching arithmetic? Is it a review of the 
course given in an elementary school or is it a discussion of the peda- 
gogical principles on which such courses are arranged? What is a 
course in practice teaching? Does such a course require of the student 
any study of material, and does it afford him any adequate critical 
discussion of his work? There has been a sharp and at times un- 
friendly clash between normal schools and colleges in the effort to 
secure answers to such questions. The normal school often takes the 
position that it administers only high-grade courses, while the col- 
leges express a frank doubt as to the value of these courses for mature 
students. 

Traditions and relations of normal schools unique. — Perhaps the 
disagreement between normal schools and colleges can best be illus- 
trated by the widespread dispute regarding foreign languages. The 
iiormal school has been historically related to the vernacular school, 
and its officers have had little patience with classical or even literary 
courses. The traditions of the college are of a totally different type. 
So long as no students passed from normal schools to colleges the 
normal schools were at liberty to hold to the vernacular, but as soon 
as normal-school graduates sought admission to higher institutions 
the controversy was on. 

Effect of parallel development of departments of education in 
colleges and universities. — A second reason why normal schools have 
been called upon to define themselves arises because colleges and uni- 
versities have in recent years entered the field of teacher training 
through the organization of departments of education and colleges 
of education. In the State imiversities the demand for preparation 
of high-school teachers has been heard, and generous provisions have 
in many cases been made for the work of preparing such teachers. 
The normal schools have looked upon this organization of teacher- 
training courses as undesired competition. Conversely, the univer- 
sity authorities have been critical of the courses in the normal schools, 



SCOPE OF THE BULLETIN. 9 

and the issue has been sharply drawn. Incidentally it may be re- 
marked that college departments of education have usually been sub- 
jected to the closest scrutiny and sometimes to violent criticism by 
other college departments because of their supposed inferiority. It 
may even be admitted that entrance requirements in the departments 
of education have sometimes been lower than those for other college 
departments in the hope of meeting the competition of normal 
schools, and courses of inferior standard in the college have been 
tolerated for like reason. All of these disputes and efforts at adjust- 
ment have aroused a general inquiry about teacher-training courses 
which a generation ago would have been without interest except to 
a small group of specialists. Xow the problem is known to all who 
are interested in education, and the discussion must go on until some 
satisfactory conclusion is reached. 

General demand in all social institutions for higher efficiencij. — The 
explanation of the current demand that normal schools standardize 
themselves would not be complete without reference to the general 
causes which are leading all over the country to surveys and careful 
examination of all kinds of educational institutions. Costs of educa- 
tional organizations are so high and the volume of educational axi-tivity 
is so great that society is demanding as never before a reasonable 
accounting. In the meantime the scientific methods of studjdng edu- 
cational results have been so far perfected that the inquiry into educa- 
tional efficiency can be made most pointed. Normal schools can not 
longer be isolated, even if they will. Society at large is interested in 
them as in other institutions. 

Systematic surveys of normal schools. Sureey of Pennsylvania 
normal schools. — Systematic surveys of normal schools are few in 
number. In 1912, E. O. Holland^ published the results of a careful 
study of the Pennsylvania normal schools. He describes the organi- 
zation, entrance requirements, curriculum, examinations, student body, 
and faculty. The normal schools of Penns3dvania were at that time 
privately owned. Their entrance requirements were very low, de- 
manding only elementary education of candidates for admission. 
The curriculum was elementary and administered with laxness. The 
examinations were perfunctory and excessively lenient. Holland 
makes it very clear that radical changes were imperatively demanded. 
Some of these changes have been made since the appearance of the 
report. 

Survey of Wisconsin normal schools. — A second extensive survey 
was made by A. N. Farmer,- under the direction of the State Board of 

1 The Pennsylvania State Normal Schools and Public School Sj-stem. By Ernest Otto 
Holland. Published by Teachers College. New York City, 1912. 

- Conditions and Needs of Wisconsin's Normal Schools. By A .N. Parmer. Issued by the 
State Board of Public Affairs, December, 1914. Democrat Printing Co., State Printer, 
Madison, Wis. 



10 STANDAEDIZUSTG STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

Public Affairs, of the normal schools of Wisconsin. This voluminous 
report contains a mass of details. It gives at great length extracts 
from reports and answers to questions. It presents in full recitations 
which were taken down by stenographers who visited normal classes 
for the purpose of reporting the recitation. In the appendix are 
tables giving the results of examinations of students, tables of costs, 
length of service, training of members of the faculties, and other 
matters. The body of the report gives an account of the organiza- 
tion and administration of the normal schools, the student body, the 
faculties, the training school, the course of study, and the mode of 
conducting instruction. There is a summary of findings placed at 
the beginning of the report. 

History of the Wisconsin norntol-scliool system. — The Wisconsin 
S5^stem is one of the best-equipped and most highl}^ centralized normal- 
school systems in the country. In his historical sketch former Presi- 
dent Salisbury ^ has shown how this system grew up after repeated 
efforts to develop, in connection with the State university, such nor- 
mal courses as the State needed. The present survey shows that there 
has been much confusion resulting from a division of interest within 
these schools between academic and normal courses. Furthermore, 
there are great variations in the administrations. There is evidently 
a marked preponderance of influence on the side of the president as 
contrasted with the faculties, and there is some evidence that stand- 
ards are disregarded in the efforts to keep up numbers. In spite of 
the original close relation between the normal-training movement and 
the university, the present relation of the normal schools to the uni- 
versity is not clearly defined. 

For the purposes of this report it will not be necessary to give any 
further account of the Wisconsin survey. The facts brought out in 
the later pages of this report confirm the impression made by the 
Wisconsin survey that there is almost entire lack of standardization 
of normal schools. 

Statement hy president of the Carnegie Foundation of the prohlem, 
of teacher training. — It may be remarked in passing that the Car- 
negie Foundation is engaged in an extended survey of the normal 
schools of Missouri and Indiana, as set forth in the following extract 
from the report of 1914 : ^ 

For several years the Foundation has considered the desirability of conducting 
a systematic inquiry into the present status of the training of teachers for 
elementary, secondary, and vocational schools. This problem, of vastly greater 
import to the country at large than any other existing phase of instruction, has 
presented a continuous challenge and, as a whole, has defied manageable analysis. 

1 Historical Sketch of Normal Instruction in Wisconsin. By Albert Salisbury, 1893. 
Published in Whitewater, Wis. 

2 Ninth Annual Report of the President and of the Treasurer of the Carnegie Founda- 
tion for the Advancement of Teaching. 1914. Pp. 19-21. 



SCOPE OF THE BULLETIN. 11 

The training of teachers in some form constitutes the capital factor in the 
success of what is financially and socially the major undertaking of every 
community. It is a problem of enormous bulk. At the same time it differs 
from the same problem in such professional fields as law, medicine, and engi- 
neering in that among elementary and secondary school teachers professional 
consciousness is nearly lacking. No organized group of teachers speaks, plans, 
or labors authoritatively for the profession as a whole. Such State or National 
associations as exist are huge, vaguely constituted aggregates, wholly lacking 
in definition of aim and membership. Under such conditions the real problems 
of the teacher can not focus sharply and be clearly understood by the teachers 
themselves in their collective capacity. 

This lack of professional consciousness is due, undoubtedly, to the meager 
training usually required as well as to the casual and temporary nature of the 
employment under the conditions prevailing in America. All of these elements 
unite to place the teacher in marked dependence upon local provision and circum- 
stance; individual initiative is discounted, and reliance is placed upon a more 
or less readily regulated " supply " of passive-minded instructors. 

It is this localized character of the task of preparing teachers that has 
finally determined the form of the contribution which the Foundation hopes to 
make to this subject. Little by little the States of the Nation are realizing the 
oneness of the educational undertaking which faces them and are discovering 
that they can expect to cope successfully with it only by creating a skillful and 
mobile central authority to operate and control the entire undertaking. Of this 
great single educational enterprise in each State, the portion that is most vital, 
that overtops all else in its decisive importance, is that of selecting and training 
teachers. The solution of the State's problem as a whole is measured largely 
by the solution of this portion of the problem. It is emphatically a State task 
to-day and will doubtless permanently remain so. 

It would seem most helpful, therefore, for the Foundation to approach the 
question from a standpoint as nearly as possible identical with that of the State 
Itself. If it can succeed in a few States, or in one State, in appreciably illumi- 
nating the situation in its legislative, administrative, and institutional aspects, 
the results should prove of value not only for the particular State concerned but 
by analogy for all States possessing similar conditions. 

This it hopes to do. The governors and the department of public instruction 
of two typical States of the IMiddle West, Indiana and Missouri, have invited the 
Foundation to examine the situation that exists with regard to the training and 
supply of teachers in their respective Commonwealths. To these formal 
invitations have been added many requests and pledges of cooperation on the 
part of local authorities in schools, colleges, and universities. With the assist- 
ance of the institutions and officials involved and of the teachers themselves, it 
is believed that facts of great importance can be brought together and certain 
questions answered that are fundamental to the successful administration of 
the States' school systems : What is the source, the nature, and extent of the 
general and professional training of the teachers to-day employed? What are 
the circumstances of age, sex, experience, and reward? What are the facts 
in respect to the annual supply required in the various grades of position? 
What is the degree of adjustment between training and service? How do 
present institutional agencies meet the apparent demand of the State in point 
of character of material, of quality of training, and quantity of product? What, 
finally, is the legislative and administrative background that conditions the 
State's present management of its problem? In all the above particulars, what 
is the historical perspective, and what is the strength of present tendencies? 



12 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

From such a review and comparison of conditions tlaere can scarcely fail to 
emerge numerous points at wliicli tlie present procedure can be improved and 
strengtliened. Tlie opportunity also of making a precisely parallel study of two 
fairly similar State units should make the results especially helpful. 

Vermont report. — The report of the Carnegie Foundation ^ on the 
State survey of Vermont, published in 1914, indudes an account of the 
normal institutions of that State and a criticism of these institutions. 

The studies of normal schools above referred to are made, it will 
be noted, by agencies which are external to the schools themselves. 
The authorities which have charge of the normal schools have been 
very slow in making the kind of study of their institutions which 
would define with clearness the place of these schools in the educa- 
tional system. 

Studies of State normal schools by local State officials. — Material 
for studies and in some cases detailed examinations of normal-school 
problems are given in a few State reports. Tavo of these reports 
will be described, namely, the one by State Supt. Morrison, of NeAv 
Hampshire, for 1911-12, pages 135-158, and the one by Commissioner 
Snedden, of Massachusetts, for 1912-13, pages 17-30 and 188-194. 

Each of these reports is an ideal survey; that is, it is an objective, 
precise study made by a thoroughly qualified educational expert, who 
is responsible for the best development of the whole educational situa- 
tion under investigation. Hence he is sympathetically interested in 
the condition of the whole, but has no personal preference for any 
part. 

Excellent report hy State Supt. Morrison, of New Hampshire. — 
Supt. Morrison treats the following topics precisely ; that is, in terms 
of exact, reliable statistics reduced to a percentage basis where 
desirable : The proportion of trained teachers in the State, the supply 
of trained teachers, the constituency of each of the existing normal 
schools (witli maps) , sections of the State at present unprovided for, 
the condition of the normal schools. This report is supplementary 
to similar studies made in other biennial reports, especially the one 
for 1907-8 and the last report for 1913-14. 

Mr. Morrison writes that " the State has a comprehensive normal 
policy which contemplates the training of the entire teaching force 
of the elementary schools." 

Excellent report hy Commissioner Snedden., of Massachusetts. — In 
the Massachusetts report for 1912-13 Mr. Snedden devotes a chapter of 
19 pages to discussion of the work of the normal schools of the State. 
He gives excellent historical and statistical tables, which show in 
usable, precise form almost all the information that any student of the 
situation might desire concerning enrollment, graduation, and com- 

lA Study of Education in Vermont. Prepared and published by the Carnegie Founda- 
tion for the Advancement of Teaching. Pp. 111-124. 



SCOPE OF THE BULLETIN. 13 

parative per capita costs. He gives accounts of conferences of repre- 
sentatives of the 10 State normal schools and the State commissioner 
to consider " proposals for increasing the efficiency of the normal 
schools in training elementary school teachers." Six of these pro- 
posals are discussed. Extensive use will be made of Mr. Snedden's 
data in this bulletin. 

Good statistical tables hy Supt. Evans, of Missouri. — Among the 
State reports which contain thorough and useful statistical data, 
organized in common terms for comparative purposes, is that of Mis- 
souri for 1913, prepared by State Supt. Evans. On page 488 Supt. 
Evans gives for each of the five normal schools of the State the num- 
ber of students of high-school rank and the number of college rank, 
further subdivided into first, second, third, and fourth year students 
in each of these ranks. For anyone who has tried to find out from 
ordinary reports just what the normal schools of such a State as Mis- 
souri are doing in the way of giving high-school and college training, 
this one page is very illuminating. It will be reproduced in a later 
chapter on numbers of students in the normal schools. 

Other State reports. — Other useful State reports received were 
those of California, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, 
New Jersey, North Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. 
Some of these contain elaborate reports from the presidents of the 
various normal schools in the State, but little general interpretative 
and comparative treatment by a central State officer. Very often the 
report prepared by each normal-school president is so constructed as 
to give an impression of the bigness and importance of the school, 
instead of giving precise, reliable, objective data that can be readily 
used for comparative purposes. It would be well if all States would 
publish such usable and illuminating comparative reports as those of 
State Supts. Morrison and Evans and Commissioner Snedden. 

Comparison of students of normal schools and colleges. — Keference 
maj'^ be made to special studies which have been useful in the present 
investigation. There is a study carried out by Mr. Shallies,^ of the 
State Normal School of Plattsburg, N. Y., to determine the quality of 
students who enter the New York normal schools. Mr. Shallies se- 
cured from those high schools of New York which sent graduates to 
the normal school in the year 1908 a full record of all graduates. He 
then arranged these graduates in groups, so as to be able to compare 
the group which went to the normal school with the group which went 
to college, the group which went into business, etc. The results of this 
comparison make it clear that students who enter the normal school 
are, on the average, of a lower grade than those Avho go to college. 

1 The Distribution of High-School Graduates After Leaving School. G. W. Shallies. 
School Review, Vol. XXI (1913), pp. 81-91. 



14 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

Certain other studies which have been made in particular matters 
are utilized in subsequent chapters of this monograph. 

Meaning of the term " standardization." — These studies indicate 
that there are productive methods which can be employed in the 
study of normal schools. It is not the aim of this report to suggest 
that normal schools in different regions be made uniform. A normal 
school such as that in ISIilwaukee, Wis., drawing its students chiefly 
from that city and distributing its graduates for the most part into 
the city schools, is of necessity a very different school from the Kirks- 
ville (Mo.) Normal School, which draws its students from towns 
and villages and sends its graduates to rural and town schools. It 
may even be desirable to have wholly different types of entrance re- 
quirements and wholly different courses in two such institutions. If 
so, it is important that these needs be clearly defined and the stand- 
ards of both schools be set up after deliberate scientific consideration. 

The eastern normal school originated as a secondary school. — 
Again, there can be no doubt that the development of normal schools 
has been \Qvy different in different parts of the United States. In 
New England, New York, and Pennsylvania the normal school grew 
up as an institution of the rank of an academy. Indeed, in New York 
and Pennsylvania the normal classes were parts of the academies 
down to a late period. The result is that the eastern normal school 
seldom, if ever, strives to become a college. The courses are car- 
ried on to the entire satisfaction of faculty and State officers at the 
level of junior-college or high-school courses, and credit is, for the 
most part, not asked of the universities for this normal work. 

Relation of western normal schools to universities. — In the Middle 
States a wholly different tradition arose. As indicated above, it 
was from the first regarded as a function of the University of Wis- 
consin to train teachers. The same is true wherever there are State 
universities. The university departments of education usually did 
not flourish, because the review courses which seemed to be needed did 
not seem to be of university grade, and there was not at that time 
scientific material for courses in the science of education. When nor- 
mal schools grew up as separate institutions they were not academies 
as in the East, nor have they been recognized by the State universities 
as coordinate institutions. An example of the university's attitude 
is seen in the fact that the University of Michigan for a long time 
refused full credit to graduates of the State normal schools. The 
normal schools in many of the Western States, including Michigan, 
on the other hand, have not been satisfied to rank lower than the uni- 
versities. They have the right to grant degrees and have been eager 
to exercise and enlarge this right. In the newer States the normal 
school has had the tradition of the college. 



SCOPE OF THE BULLETIN. 15 

The uncertainty of purpose and organization has increased ivith 
groivth of normal schools. — The western normal school has, on the 
other hand, in many cases made no effort to become a college. The 
kind of students which it could command and the urgency of the need 
which it had to supply have dictated a type of organization wholh^ 
different from that of the State university. The example of the New 
England normal school undoubtedly operated to make some of the 
western schools satisfied with high-school standards. Furthermore, 
the normal school has in some cases consciously accepted in sparsely 
settled or frontier communities standards of admission which were 
recognized as different from those of either the urban high schools 
or the State university. Thus confusion has grown and standards 
have been set aside in this development. It is now time to raise all 
of the questions at once and to seek an answer. Is the normal school 
to be of higher rank than the secondary school ? Is it to be taken out 
of competition with the secondary school ? Is it to be taken out of 
competition with the State university? In short, what is the place 
and what the legitimate work of the normal school ? 

This monograph merely outlines the problem of standardization 
of State normal schools. — One further comment is necessary in re- 
gard to the present report. The studies made have led to definite con- 
clusions regarding the form of organization desirable in normal 
schools. It is evident that not all the possible facts have been can- 
vassed. It is probable that some officers of normal institutions will not 
agree with the conclusions. It is emphatically to be urged that those 
who are not satisfied with the present work undertake the neces- 
.sary amplifications of this study. The study aims merely to demon- 
strate the necessity of a broader investigation. 

Finally, the limitations of this report may be further defined by 
the statement that this bulletin is restricted to a study of State nor- 
mal schools. Some restriction of the scope of the study was neces- 
sary in order to simplify the problems and to secure a field in which 
comparisons could be ventured. This restriction eliminates a con- 
sideration of the work of closely related institutions, such as city 
training schools, county normal schools, and teachers' training courses 
in high schools. These institutions have been described, however, 
in other special bulletins issued by the Bureau of Education. County 
normal schools and teachers' courses in high schools are discussed 
in a bulletin by A. C. Monahan and R. H. Wright, entitled " Train- 
ing Courses for Rural Teachers" (No. 2, 1913), and city training 
schools for teachers arc described by Frank A. Manny in Bulletin 
No. 47, 1914.1 

^ See also Bui. No. 48, 1914, " Efficiency and preparation of rural-school teachers," and 
Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1914, Vol, I, pp. 1-116 ; 1915, Vol. I, p. 82. 

15607°— 16 2 



Chapter II. 



STATISTICAL COMPARISON OF COLLEGES AND 
NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



Relation of normal schools to colleges a vital problem in the 
North Central States. — One of the most vigorously discussed prob- 
lems is that of the relation of the normal school to the college or 
university. As indicated in the preceding chapter, this problem 
comes to the surface for historical reasons esiDecially in the States 
of the North Central territory. Here there are a number of normal 
schools which aim to take on full college or university standing. It 
is appropriate, therefore, in this territory to make a comparison 
between the normal schools and the other institutions which receive 
high-school graduates and continue their education. 

The no7"trud school has- its s-pecial proljlems. — Lest the motives of 
the following study should be misimderstood, it should perhaps be' 
explicitly stated that it is not assumed in this report that a normal 
school should pattern its organization a.fter that of the college. It 
is merely pointed out that in certain respects normal schools and 
colleges differ fundamentally. 

Report is based on returns from majority of schools. — This com- 
parative study of certain normal schools and colleges is based on 
returns made to the North Central Association of Colleges and 
Secondary Schools. Table 1 shows the distribution by States of 
the normal schools included in this study : 

Table 1. — State normal schools in various States considered, and number 
reporting to the North Central Association. 



states. 



Colorado 

Illinois ■- 

Indiana 

Iowa 

•Kansas - - 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

North Dakota 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

South Dakota 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 

Total 

> Included as part of the State university 
16 



Included 


Reporting 


in report of 


to North 


Commis- 


Central 


sioner of 


Associa- 


Education. 


tion. 


2 


1 


5 


5 


1 


1 


1 


1 


3 


3 


4 


3 


5 


1 


5 


4 


1 


1 


4 


2 


3 


2 


4 


3 


6 


3 


4 


o 


s 


3 


'0 





56 


35 



COMPAEISOT^ OF COLLEGES AND NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



17 



Academic training of faculties. — The returns for both colleges and 
normal schools should show how many members of the faculties have 
advanced degrees. Table 2 gives the results for 63 colleges and uni- 
versities on the approved list of the association for 1014 and 32 of 
the normal schools indicated in Table 1. The second column reports 
for the doctor's degree held by college faculties; the third column 
for the master's degree held by college faculties; the fourth and 
fifth columns for the normal faculties and the degrees of doctor and 
master, respectively. Thus the second column should be read as 
follows: There are two colleges which have less than 9 per cent of 
their faculty holding the doctor's degree. There are 11 institutions 
that have between 10 and 19 per cent, 16 that have between 20 and 
29 per cent, and so on. The third column of the same table should be 
read as follows : There is 1 institution that has less than 9 per cent of 
its faculty with the master's degree; there is 1 institution that haa 
between 10 and 19 per cent, and so on. 



Tabl?j 2. — Advanced decrees held by members of Jurulticft. 



Percentage of faculty. 


Colleges and uni- 
versities. 


Normal s( liouls. 




Ph. D.i 


Master.i 


Ph. D.2 


Master.* 


to 9 


2 
11 
16 
13 

6 
10 

2 

3 


1 

1 

1 

2 

7 

8 

11 

11 

15 

6 


22 

8 


3 


10 to 19 


6 


20 to 29 


5 


30 to 39 


7 


40 to 49 




6 


50 to 59 




4 


60tofi9 







70 to 79 




1 


SO to S9 






90 to 100 

















1 Nine not reporting. 



' Three not reporting. 



For colleges : 

Average per cent of doctors 34 

Average per cent of masters 67 

For normal schools : 

Average per cent of doctors 7 

Average per cent of masters 31 

This table makes it very clear that the academic qualification of 
normal faculties is very different from that of faculties of even the 
small colleges. It is not argued that university degrees should be 
required, but it is evident that normal schools must give heed to this 
sharp distinction when discussing the admission of their students to 
college with full credit for normal courses. 

Sizes of normal faculties less than those of universities, but above 
those of most small colleges. — Table 3 shows the sizes of faculties, 
indicating the gross membership of these faculties. The table dis- 



18 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



tributes the institutions according to the increasing size of the 
faculties : 

Table 3. — Distribution of institutions according to size of faculty. 





Number of members in faculty. 


Classes of institutions. 






























t-i 








OS 


Ol 


OJ 


Ol 






o> 






T)< 




;s; 




B 


s 










CO 


















o 


o 


U 










































o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


s 


o 


o 


o 


S 


o 










n 


^ 








00 


o 




'-' 


Ol 




n 


Colleges and universities having 


































numbers given 


1 


?1 


n 


7 


fi 


•y 


? 


? 


?. 


1 


4 


1 


?, 


1 


3 


6 


Normal scliools having numbers 


































given 


1 


y 





9 


4 


3 


2 








1 

















1 



This table shows that the normal school is to be classified as be- 
longing, in general, with the small college in point of size. It is not 
equipped for instruction as is the great university. A few of the 
normal schools have reached the level of large colleges, as shown by 
the fact that one has a faculty of between 90 and 99, two between 
60 and G9. 

Normal-school faculties work many hours. — Table 3A, taken in 
connection with Table 3, reveals a fundamental difference in policy 
regarding the hours of service expected of members of the faculty. 
Each institution was asked to report the number of members of the 
faculty who have more than 18 hours a week of teaching. In the 
normal schools it is practically universal. Among the colleges and 
universities there are 36 which report no members of the faculty 
who work 18 hours. A^Tiere the colleges and universities report more 
than 18 hours, they usually qualif}^ the report by stating that it is 
only officers in charge of shops or laboratories who have the long 
hours. In several normal schools all officers have the long hours. 



Table 3A.- 



-Distribution of institutions showing number of oncers tcho teach 
over 18 hours per week. 





Number of members of faculty who teach more than 18 
hours per week. 




None. 


lto4 


5 to 9 


10 to 
19 


20 to 
29 


30 to 
39 


40 to 
49 


50 to 
59 


No re- 
port. 


Colleges and universities reporting numbers 


36 



12 
9 


6 
2 


3 
3 


1 
7 



6 


2 
6 



1 


12 


Normal schools reportiag numbers given 


1 



The table regarding hours of work is illuminating. It shows, in 
the first place, why candidates for teaching positions prefer to get 
into colleges. The hours of work in normal schools are much longer. 



COMPAEISON OF COLLEGES AND NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



19 



In the second place, this table explains in large measure why the 
faculties of normal schools can not and do not carry on as much pro- 
ductiA'e work. If normal schools are to help teachers in service to 
prepare courses of study and to test their results, they must have 
more leisure than they now have. 

Salaries are good. — The average salaries paid to members of the 
faculty are set forth in Table 4. 

Table 4. — Aveni(/e salaries in North Central colleges and normal schools. 



Salaries. 


■Univer- 
sities 
and 
colleges. 


Normal 
schools. 


Salaries. 


Univer- 
sities 
and 

colleges. 


Normal 
schools. 


$900 to S999 




1 


$1,000 to $1,699 _ 


9 
9 

2 

5 
1 
2 
10 


3 


$1,000 to $1 ,099 


3 
4 

8 
6 

7 
6 


$1,700 to $1,799 


3 


$1 ,100 to $1 ,199 


1 
2 

1 
5 
3 


$1,S00 to $1,899... 


5 


$1,200 to $1,299 


$1,900 to $1,999 

$2,0u0to$2,099 

$2,100 and over . .. 


\ 


$1,300 to $1,399 




$1,400 to $1,499 


3 


$1,500 to $1,599 




7 









Material resources. — In general, as indicated in the table on 
average salaries, the material resources of the normal schools are 
very good. Direct comparison of capital is difficult, because most 
colleges depend on private endowments, while normal schools are 
supported by legislative grants. The following tables (Tables 5 
and 6) give the facts, however, in a form which shows the satisfactory 
financing of normal schools. Table 5 shows the distribution of en- 
dowed institutions in the North Central States. This table does not 
include any normal school, but establishes a basis of comparison. 
The income from an endowment of $250,000 is not likely to exceed 
$15,000. The college is supported further, as the normal school is 
not, by tuition fees. All told, however, there are many colleges 
which have a gross income of less than $50,000. 

Table 5. — Productive endowment of colleges and endotved universities. 



Endowment. 


Institu- 
tions. 


Endowment. 


Institu- 
tions. 


$100,000 to $149,000 


1 

10 
4 
2 



$400,000 to $449,000 


4 
3 
11 
9 

7 


$150,000 to $199,000 


$450,000 to $499,000 


$200,000 to $249,000 


$500,000 to $999,000 

$1 ,000,000 and over 


$250,000 to $299,000 


$300,000 to $349,000 




$350,000 to $399,000 







Table 6 compares the North Central normal schools with similarly 
located State institutions. Here it should be noted that there are 
usually several normal schools in a State, so that the aggregate ex- 
penditure on normal schools, when all normal institutions are con- 



20 



STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



sidered, is much greater than the figures in Table 6 would at first 
siffht indicate : 



Table 6. — Annual income of State-supported institutions in North Central States. 



Amount of income. 



Less than $25 ,000... 
$25,000 to $49,000.... 
$50,000 to $74,000.... 
$75,000 to $99,000.... 
$100,000 to $124,000.. 
$125,000 to $149,000.. 
$150,000 to $199,000.. 
$200,000 to $249,000.. 
$250,000 to $299,000.. 
$300,000 to $399,000.. 
$400,000 to $499,000.. 
$500,000 and over. . . 
No information 



Univer- 
sities. 



Colleges 
of agri- 
culture 

and 
miaes. 



Normal 
schools. 



Number of courses. — Table 7 shows how many courses are given 
in a year by the approved universities and colleges of the North Cen- 
tral Association and by the normal schools. The magnitude of the 
normal schools is made evident by this table. 

Table 7. — Number of courses given annually. 



Number of courses. 


Univer- 
sities 
and 

colleges. 


Normal 
schools. 


Less than 25 




1 
5 
5 
8 
2 
1 
2 
3 
5 
1 


25to49 


3 
9 
10 
9 
5 
3 
3 
8 
5 
2 
8 
7 


50 to 74 


75to99 


100 to 124 


125 to 149 . . . 


150tol74 


175 to 199 


200 to 299 


300 to 399 


400 to 499... . 








2 





Ratio of faculty members to number of students. — One other item 
of internal organization may be made a subject of comment. The 
ratio of faculty members to students is about the same in normal 
schools and colleges, as shown by Table 8. The organization of 
normal schools is seen to be like in kind to that of the colleges. 



COMPARISON OF COLLEGES AND NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



21 



Tabe 8. — Distribution of institutions according to ratio of faculty members to 

students. 



Students per faculty member. 


Universi- 
ties and 
colleges. 


Normal 
schools. 


to 4.9 




1 
2 


5 to 6.9 


2 
3 
11 
11 
14 
10 
5 
6 
3 


7 to 8.9 


9 to 10.9 


3 
2 
3 

8 

4 
1 
1 
2 


11 to 12.9 


13 to 14.9 


15 to 16.9 


17 to 18.9 


19 to 20.9 


21 to 22.9 


23 to 24.9 


25 to 29.9 


4 


30 to 39.9 


2 


40 to 49.9 




50 to 59.9 


1 
2 




No information 


6 





Summarizing this comparative study, it may be said that in 
material resources, in number of courses, and in ratio of faculty 
to students, normal schools are directly comparable to selected lists 
of universities and colleges. In training of the faculty and in the 
tasks imposed on faculty members, normal schools suffer seriously in 
comparison to colleges. 



Chapter III. 

PURPOSE, NUMBER, AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBU- 
TION OF SERVICES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



Normal schools exist for the State, not for the students. — To 
a student of American normal schools the first broad questions which 
arise concern the purposes of tliese schools, the number of schools 
maintained in each State, and the geographical distribution of the 
services of the schools within a State. These three items are inti- 
mately related. An excellent expression of the relationship is con- 
tained in the following quotation from the report of State Supt. Mor- 
rison, of New Hampshire, for 1911-12, page 151. After discussing 
the possible location for new normal schools in the State, he says : 

It will perhaps be recognized that the foi-egoing discusfJion is all based upon 
the theory that normal schools exist for the State and not the reverse. * * * 
They are not established primarily to afford opportunities to young women who 
aspire to teach, but rather for the purpose of furnishing trained teachers for the 
common schools. Their establishment becomes purely a matter of finding ways 
in which they can serve this purpose to the best and most economical effect. 
No community has any claim upon the State for the location of a new school 
within its limits. Every school should be so located as to provide the best 
prospect of enabling a section of the State to educate and train its own teachers. 

Almost the same statement occurs in the report of Commissioner 
Snedden, of Massachusetts, who says (1912-13, p. 74) : 

The normal schools do not exist for the sake of the young people whom they 
educate ; they were organized for the purpose of training teachers for the public 
schools. Their further development must be controlled by considerations as to 
what will prove the most effective and most economic means of training an 
adequate supply of teachers for the Commonwealth as a whole. 

This standard applies in settling all normal- school issues. — ^It 
might seem to some readers unnecessary to reiterate the point of view 
expressed in these two quotations, but, as a matter of fact, in almost 
every State it is necessary to keep constantly in mind this idea of 
securing the most effective and economic means of training teachers 
for the whole State, in order to combat local influences and ambi- 
tions and to avoid the waste of State funds. 

Determining the location for new normal schools; four factors. — 
There are many instances of normal schools which have been un- 
22 



PURPOSE AND DISTRIBUTION OF NORMAL SCHOOLS. 23 

fortunately located, owing to lack of foresight or to the temporary 
strength of local political influences, and these unfortunate locations 
are not infrequently referred to and discussed by State authorities 
who take an objective view of the needs of the whole State. Among 
the most important considerations in locating most normal schools are 
the folloAving: (1) Each one should be so located as to serve a well- 
defined area of population. (2) It should be centrally located in the 
area, which usually should have a radius of about 50 miles from the 
normal school as a center. (3) It should be located in the most con- 
venient railroad center in this area. (4) It should be located in a 
town large enough to provide more than adequate practice-teaching 
facilities for any number of teachers that the area might need at any 
time in the future. 

Balancing of these factors usually needed. — Needless to say, not all 
these conditions could be completely satisfied in locating every normal 
school. Number 2 must often be violated when there is a large met- 
ropolitan area located on the edge of a State. In such a case, how- 
ever, the location of the school on the edge of the area is usually 
compensated for by the fact that the city is an excellent railroad 
center. 

UnfortuTmte location of normal schools in small towns. — All these 
conditions have been violated in the establishment of some normal 
schools. In fact, it is not uncommon in normal-school catalogues to 
find idealized descriptions of the location of the school in question 
in a small town far from the distractions and temptations of city 
life. While this monastic seclusion may have some obvious advan- 
tages, the disadvantages of such a location for a school that is to 
serve a large area of the State most economically and effectively are 
of much greater importance. Sometimes a State normal school 
which is supposed to serve a large, well-populated area is located in 
a toW'U of only 2,000 to 5,000 population on a single railroad, when 
only a few miles away is a city of over 20,000 located on several 
railroads. 

Critical study of normal-school zones of New Hampshire. — An 
excellent discussion of the above conditions as they determine the 
location of new normal schools in a single State — New Hampshire — 
is found in Supt. Morrison's report for 1911-12, pages 141-151. The 
accompan^dng map shows the two zones from which the two existing 
normal schools draw^ most of their students. 

Poor location of the Plymouth school. — The long irregular zone 
running up along certain railroad lines in the middle of the map is 
inadequately served by the Plymouth Normal School, as shown in 
the following quotation (p. 144) : 

In connection with Plymouth, it should be said that the school can not possi- 
bly fully serve the zone from which it now draws students. Twenty per cent 



24 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

of the Plymouth enrollment at present comes from the city of Manchester alone. 
The zone contains five cities, three of them the largest, in order, in the State, 
besides a number of large towns, something like two-fifths of the entire popu- 
lation of the State. Now, Plymouth is up to its maximum enrollment. No 
amount of building or physical enlargement of the school can provide model and 
practice schools, which are the vitals of successful normal-school work. The 
trustees at present limit the enrollment to 150. But even this is much too large 
for the most effective work. 

Better location of the Keene school. — On the other hand, the nor- 
mal school at Keene, N, H., is better located to serve its constituency. 
The contrast with the j)oor location of Plymouth is brought out in 
the following quotation (p. 146) : 

The Keene zone, us will be seen, is much more normal in type — that is, it 
approaches more nearly the character of a circle with a school at its center. 
As a result, its work for the State will probably always be more intensive. 
I mean by that that it will tend to have some students from every town in its 
territory. This zone requires annually about 90 teachers without previous expe- 
rience. We can without any great exercise of the imagination see the school 
providing this number annually. Hence we can safely say that it is merely a 
que«>tion of time when a section of the State southwest of a line drawn between 
Nashua and Chireniont can provide itself with teaching forces composed exclu- 
sivelj' of trained teachers. 

The Keene school can train an enrollment of 480 as easily and as well as 
Plymouth can train an enrollment of 150. There is model and practice material 
enough there for the purpose. An enrollment of 2.50 students under training 
would suffice for the needs of that section of the State. 

Description of location of a well-located normal school. — In com- 
piling this bulletin an attempt was made to secure from the president 
of a well-located normal school the data to fill in the blanks in the fol- 
lowing. The data were not forthcoming, however. In lieu of them, 
the paragraph is printed with blank spaces which any normal-school 
president can fill in for his school and ascertain if the story which 
the paragraph then tells is satisfactory from the standpoint of the 
possibilities of the school rendering large service : 

An example of a (well or poorly) located normal school is the one at 

. (1) The zone which it serves contains a population of and needs 

approximately — new teachers for town schools and — new teachers for rural 

schools annually. (2) The town is centrally located in the area, as will 

be seen from the accompanying map. The average radius from the town to 
the edge of its normal-school area is approximately — miles. (3) — steam and 

electric railroads place the city in direct communication with parts of 

the area. (4) The city has thousand children in its public schools, which 

assures adequate (or inadequate) practice facilities for years to come. 

Number of normal schools in a State. Each section must train its 
own teachers. — Closely related to the geographical distribution of the 
services of State normal schools is the number maintained by a given 
State. Logically, since the purpose of the State normal schools is to 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1916, NO. 12 




ZONES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE FROM WHICH THE TWO STATE NORMAL 
SCHOOLS DRAW THE BULK OF THEIR STUDENTS. 



PUEPOSE AND DISTRIBUTIOlSr OF NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



25 



train teachers for the whole State, the number of schools established 
should be determined by this consideration. As soon as one begins to 
study the question from this point of view, he meets the " well-estab- 
lished principle that all higher educational institutions draw" their 
students largely from within a radius of comparatively few miles." 
A corollary of this principle as applied to normal schools is that " in 
the long run, each community has to raise as many teachers as it 
needs." Furthermore, the services of a normal school to the different 
parts of the community diminish rapidly as one travels away from the 
center where it is located. 

Distribution of students when only one State normal school is 
maintained. — One of the best illustrations of this fact is the accom- 
panying map, reproduced from the catalogue of the State Normal 
School at Terre Haute, Ind. The latter is one of the fcAv well-devel- 
oped States that maintains only one State normal school. It would 
appear from the map that the county in which the school is located 
and the immediately surrounding tier of counties receive 29 per cent 
of the services of the school, although they include only 7 per cent of 
the population of the State. Even if the county in which the school 
is located be omitted (since many persons move into the normal-school 
tow^n to educate their children), it is found that the immediately sur- 
rounding tier of counties receives 12 per cent of the services of the 
State school, although these counties include only 4 per cent of the 
population of the State. In other words, the region in which the 
school is located receives from the State funds three to four times the 
amount of service to which it is entitled on the basis of the population 
of the region. The data on which these calculations are based are 
shown in the accompanying table. 

Proportionate representation of neighboring counties and the tvhole State in the 
Terre Haute (Ind.) State Normal School.^ 



Region. 



Popula- 
tion, 1910. 



Per cent 

population, 

1910. 



Students 
in normal. 



Per cent 
students. 



State., 

State, except Vigo and contiguous counties 

Vigo and contiguous counties 

Vigo County , seat of normal 

Aggregate of all counties contiguous to Vigo County. . 
Counties contiguous to Vigo County, in detail: 

Vermilion County 

Parke County 

Clay County 

Sullivan County 



2,700,876 
2, 506, 893 

193,983 
87, 930 

106,053 

18,865 
22,214 
32,535 
32, 439 



100.0 

92.8 

7.2 

3.3 

3.9 



1.2 
1.2 



3,855 

2,729 

1,126 

651 

475 

82 
92 
126 
175 



100.0 
70.8 
29.2 
16.9 
12.3 

2.1 

2.4 
3.3 
4.5 



1 Terre Haute is located in Vigo County. 



26 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



6 

LAQRAJfCE 






DSAJin 




Fig. 1. — Geographical distribution of students in Indiana State Normal School, Terre 

Haute, Vigo County. 



PUKPOSE AND DISTRIBUTION OF NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 27 

Students in the Indiana State Normal School per 1,000 population. 

For the State as a whole 1.4 

For State except Vigo and contiguous counties 1. 1 

For Vigo and contiguous counties 5. 8 

Vigo County 7. 4 

Aggregate of all counties contiguous to Vigo 4. 5 

Counties contiguous to Vigo, in detail : 

Parke County 4. 2 

Clay County 3.9 

Sullivan County 5. 4 

Vermilion County 4. 4 

For every 1,000 population Vigo and contiguous counties send 
to the State Normal School 5.3 students for every 1 from the rest 
of the State. 

Few normal graduates in sections remote from normal schools. — 
Further evidence concerning the tendency of a normal school to fail 
to serve areas of the State remote from it is contained in the extracts 
given below from letters received by State Supt. Kendall from 
teachers in the southern part of New Jersey who were high-school 
graduates, but had not attended normal school. In discussing the 
situation Mr. Kendall says : " The fact is that the State has not done 
its duty to the children in that section, because it has failed to provide 
adequate facilities for the training of teachers." The following 
quotations from letters are typical (report for 1913, pp. 132-133) : 

" I do think if there had been a normal school nearer, so I could have gone 
with less expense attached, I would have been a normal graduate to-day." 

" The reason I did not attend was because of the cost and inconvenience. Had 
there been a normal school nearer home, no doubt I should have attended such." 

" The only reason why I did not enter a normal school was because of the 
overcrowded conditions at the State Normal School at Trenton, and I could 
not enter until the following term after sending in my application." 

" The only reason for my not attending the normal school was the expense, 
on account of the normal school being too far from my home." 

" I would have been only too glad of the opportunity to attend a normal 
school had there been one near at hand. Furthermore, this fall I tried to have 
my sister enrolled as a student at the Trenton Normal School, but there was no 
room for her. The same condition prevailed at IMontclair. I was disappointed, 
for I wanted her to attend a New Jersey normal school." 

" Had there been a normal school in our vicinity when T graduated from high 
school, I should have been glad to take advantage of the opportunity." 

Data showing numher of State normal schools in each State. — In 
view of such facts most States have endeavored to meet the needs 
of all sections by establishing two or more State normal schools to 
serve definite areas. The number of State normal schools maintained 
in each State is shown below. Similar data are shown on the map 
on page 29. 



28 



STANDAKDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



Number of State normal schools in each State. 



Alabama 7 

Arizona 2 

Arkansas 2 

California 8 

Colorado ' 2 

Connecticut 4 

Florida "1 

Georgia " 3 

Idaho 2 

Illinois 5 

Indiana 1 

Iowa ^ 1 

Kansas'; 3 

Kentucliy 3 

Louisiana 1 

Maine 6 



Maryland 3 

IVIassachusetts 10 

Michigan 4 

Minnesota 5 

Mississippi 1 

Missouri 6 

Montana 1 

Nebraslia 4 

Nevada ^ 1 

New Hampshire 2 

New Jersey 3 

New Mexico 2 

New York ' 11 

North Carolina ; 7 

North Dakota 4 

Ohio M 



Oklahoma 7 

Oregon 1 

Pennsj'lvania 13 

Rhode Island 1 

South Carolina 2 

South Dakota 4 

Tennessee 4 

Texas 5 

Utah *1 

Vermont 2 

Virginia 5 

Vi'^ashington 3 

AVest Virginia 7 

"Wisconsin 9 

Wyoming ^ 1 



Uneconomical to maintain very small schools. — The multiplication 
of normal schools to serve the several districts of the State has, how- 
ever, certain disadvantages when carried too far. These disad- 
vantages are those which result from the maintenance of a number 
of very small schools, instead of a few which are large enough to 
permit the economical development of adequate equipment and the 
economical employment of an adequate faculty. It is necessary to 
balance these factors against the arrangements for localizing the 
services of the normal schools in order to determine the number of 
schools that any State ought to undertake to maintain. 

Disadcantages illustrated in Massachusetts. — Some of the disad- 
vantages of organizing too many schools are discussed by Commis- 
sioner Snedden, of Massachusetts, a State which maintains 10 normal 
schools. He says (Eeport, 1912-13, pp. 72-73) : 

In proportion to population, and especially in proportion to area, Massachu- 
setts has more (separate) normal schools than any other State in the Union. As 
one result the State has a larger proportion of trained teachers in the public 
schools than any other State; as another, opportunity for normal-school atten- 
dance is easily possible to a large majority of the residents of the State, 
even in the case of pupils desiring to attend as day students. 

But there are disadvantages connected with this multiplicity of normal schools. 
Each school must offer a rounded program of professional instruction with 
proper specialization of work on the part of instructors. Hence the per capita 
expenditure of a small school is necessarily large. Again, because of the small 
size of each of the normal schools in the State, it is not practicable to pay to 
heads of departments salaries equal to those ofEered in other States which have 
larger normal schools. The result is that for many years Massachusetts has 
been steadily losing its most expert normal-school teachers. The maximum 
salaries paid teachers in the Massachusetts normal schools are: To women, 



1 State colleges for teachers counted as normal schools. 

2 Includes normal schools organized as part of a State college or university. 



PURPOSE AND DISTRIBUTION OF NORMAL SCHOOLS. 29 

$1,500; to men. until recently $2,300 and now $2,500; but larger schools in 
other States pay as much as $2,000 to women and $3,000 to men, as heads of de- 
partments. The overhead and administration charges for a small school are 
invariably larger in proportion to attendance than for a large school 




A more detailed discussion of the larger per capita expense of main- 
taining small normal schools will be given in later chapters. 

Instruction deteriorates in overcrowded normal schools: Limiting 
the attendance.—ln some States the normal schools quickly outgrow 



30 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

their facilities. In some such cases the schools continue to try to 
take care of all comers, with resulting deterioration in the quality 
of the instruction provided. Other States place limits on the number 
of students that may be accommodated in the schools. In order to 
keep the schools from being filled up entirely by students from the 
immediate vicinity, an equitable allotment of students to the several 
counties in the normal school district is sometimes provided. The 
effect of both of these arrangements is seen in the following excerpt 
from the report of the principal of the Trenton (N. J.) State Normal 
School. He says (An. Kep. State Bd. of Ed., 1913, p. 439) : 

AVe took for the year a larger enrollment than we really should have taken, 
considering the size of our building and the number of our teachers, and yet 
we were not able to receive more than half of those who wished to come. The 
provision of the law that secures the rights of the more distant counties to their 
proportion of the enrollment is wise, but it is especially hard that those living 
near us can not all be received. 

Railroad fares of students paid in a few States. — In a very few 
cases the disadvantages of communities located at some distance from 
a State normal school are balanced by the payment of the railroad 
fares of students. For example, in the 1913 report of the board 
of trustees of the Rhode Island State Normal School (p. 10) we 
find the following paragraph : 

Students' mileage and car fares. — Obviously to promote, in some degree, an 
equality of opportunity among students of the Normal School residing in differ- 
ent parts of the State, an annual appropriation for mileage has been made 
by the general assembly since 1871. The first appropriation of $1,500 was 
increased to $2,000 in 1896, to $3,000 in 1900, and to $4,000 in 1902. The 
appropriation for mileage is apportioned among students who reside farther 
from the Normal School than a distance practically indicated by a car fare of 
5 cents, according to the distance traveled and the number of days of atten- 
dance. Though there has been a large increase in the number of students, there 
has been no increase since 1902 in the amount of mileage annually appro- 
priated by the general assembly. The trustees, however, have found it essential, 
in view of the extension of the system of training schools to different parts of 
the State, to provide, from the general appropriation for the school, car fares 
for student teachers in cases not covered by mileage. Though not perhaps a 
pressing need, an increase in the amount allowed for mileage would prove of 
pronounced advantage. 

This paragraph is followed in the Rhode Island report by 12 
rules governing the apportionment of mileage and car fares. 

Similarly, in the New Mexico Normal University bulletin for 1914, 
we find the following paragraph : 

Railroad fare. — ^A student that will sign a declaration of residence in New 
Mexico and an intent to teach in New Mexico may have railroad fare, less $3, 
returned after eight weeks' attendance at the Normal University. Students 
must travel over shortest practicable route. Take a receipt for every ticket you 
buy. 



PURPOSE AND DISTRIBUTION OF NORMAL SCHOOLS. 31 

Maintenance of normal schools usually parallels general educa- 
tional policy of a State. — In most States the establishment of normal 
schools has paralleled the general educational conditions and educa- 
tional policies of the State. Consequently, in States like ISIassachu- 
setts, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California, we find strong 
normal-school systems. In other States, such as some of those in 
the South, the development of normal schools has been retarded, 
paralleling in this respect the development of general educational 
conditions. The recent intense revival of educational progress in 
these sections, however, is generally paralleled by similar interest in 
normal-school education. 

Exceptions. — In a few States the adequate development of State 
normal schools was retarded for a long time even though the general 
educational conditions were fairly good or even excellent. Exam- 
ples of such States are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa. In 
some of these cases one important factor in retarding the develop- 
ment of adequate public normal schools was the existence of a large 
number of private and denominational colleges or normal schools. 
In the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1912 Ohio is 
shown to have some 37 such colleges; Pennsylvania has practically 
the same number and until recently had in addition about 13 private 
(but so-called " State ") normal schools, the latter receiving State 
aid. Iowa has only about 22 private and denominational colleges in 
the list and Indiana only 17, but in each of these States a single 
powerful State normal school is an additional factor to be considered 
in determining why these highly developed States have relatively 
inadequate State normal-school facilities for many parts of the 
States. The situation in Pennsylvania was thoroughly described in 
the study by E. O. Holland, in 1912, which was referred to above 
on page 9. About the time that this study was published, reforms 
in the administration of the so-called State normal schools were begun, 
which will probably eventuallj'' result in these schools serving the 
purposes of the State as State normal schools do in most places. In 
Ohio two State normal schools were opened in 1902, but grew very 
slowly, owing to the fact that private-school interests opposed the 
development of an adequate scheme for granting teachers' certificates 
to the graduates of the State schools. These difficulties were 
eventually overcome, however. Moreover, the State recently opened 
two new State normal schools. Indiana still has only one State 
normal school, but several very powerful private normal schools or 
colleges. From the list in the Report of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation for 1912, it would appear that the State of Iowa has no State 
normal school, but this is merely due to the fact that the institution 
at Cedar Falls is now ranked as a State teachers' college; hence it 
appears in the list of colleges instead of normal schools. 
15607°— 16 3 



Chapter IV: 



THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF STATE NORMAL 

SCHOOLS. 



Control to be determined by purpose of serving the State. — Since 
the purpose of a State normal-school system is to serve the whole 
State in the training of teachers, the question of the administrative 
control of the State schools in the interests of the State is of vital 
importance. The issues which arise in determining the best type of 
control are the same as arise in the case of any other State educational 
institutions. The problems are somewhat simpler, hoM^ever, in the 
case of normal schools, because the purposes of these schools may be 
clearly defined and restricted, namely, to training teachers for the 
public schools of the State. Since the number and Idnd of teachers 
needed in each State can be very easily and very definitely deter- 
mined, the larger outlines of the tasks of the normal schools can also 
be easily drawn. Consequently there should be less scope for varia- 
tion in opinion concerning normal-school policies than concerning 
the policies of other educational institutions. As a' matter of fact, 
however, there exists a great variety among the different States. 
These forms of control will be discussed in this chapter in two sec- 
tions. The first section contains some of the results of an elaborate 
inquiry conducted by Mr. D. E. Henry during the spring of 1915 by 
means of correspondence with State educational officials and normal- 
school presidents and by an examination of the latest available 
printed State codes of school laws. The second section contains an 
interpretative discussion by the authors of the bulletin. 

Section I. A STUDY OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOL CONTROL. 

By D. R. Henry, Superintendent of Schools, Jerseyville, III. 

Types of control. — Though the systems of control in State normal 
school systems differ in details, there seem to be four clearly defined 
types. These are : 

I. The type in which the authority to control is vested in a sepa- 
rate local board of trustees for each normal school. Examples of this 
type of control are Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New 
Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington. In 
32 



THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL. ' 33 

practically all cases there are ex officio members on these boards who 
serve to connect the local and State control. 

II. The type in Avliich the authority to control is vested ^\'ith a 
State board of normal school trustees or a State board of education 
which has supervision of normal schools, but of no other educational 
activities in the State. In Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Michigan, 
Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, 
Virginia, and Wisconsin the State normal schools are placed under 
the management of such a State board. The members of these boards 
are usually chosen from various parts of the State. To insure a repre- 
sentative body, many of the States have passed measures relating to 
the political, residential, and sex qualifications of members. For 
example, the Minnesota law provides that " there shall be one director 
resident in each county in which a normal school is located, and no 
two shall be residents of the same county." Some States determine 
the number by congressional district. 

III. The t3'^pe in which the control is vested in a State body usually 
termed board of education or board of regents which controls at the 
same time other educational activities in the State. Examples of this 
type of control are Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, 
South Dakota, and Tennessee. The authority in this type rests wdth 
this State board as the administrative head of the State school system 
or of the higher institutions. The titles of the body are somewhat 
confusing. For example, the functions of the Iowa State Board of 
Education are limited to State institutions of higher education. In 
New York the State board of regents is the administrative head of the 
public school system, acting in all matters not in conflict with statutes. 

IV. The type in which there is a dual or cooperative scheme of 
control. This type of control is less common and fewer examples 
can be offered. Though the dual characteristic is common to all of 
these examples, the following cases will show that they vary con- 
siderably in detail. Montana has a State board of education in 
charge of all State educational institutions. As relates to State nor- 
mal school control, there is also a local board of trustees consisting 
of three members, two appointed by the governor and the president 
of the normal school serving as ex officio chairman. In theory the 
State board has general control and delegates such powers to the 
local board as it sees fit. California until recently has offered an- 
other peculiar system of control. A board of trustees was over 
each school, and paralleling somewhat the Montana State board 
was a " Joint Board of State Normal School Trustees " composed of 
the governor, the superintendent of public instruction, and the presi- 
dents of the State normal school boards. The joint board has been 



34 ■ STANDAEDlZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

abolished by the recent session of the legislature, and its powers 
have been lodged in the State board of education. Kentucky still 
retains a similar type of control. A local board of regents has 
general control and management of a normal school, adopting need- 
ful rules and regulations, appointing or dismissing officers, fixing 
compensation, etc., while the duty of the " Normal Executive Coun- 
cil " is to " prescribe the course of study to be taught in each State 
normal school and the educational qualifications for admission to 
and graduation from the same." The council is composed of the 
State superintendent of public instruction and the " head executive " 
of each State normal school. West Virginia offers a typically dual 
type of administration. The State normal schools are under the 
management of two State bodies, the " State board of regents " and 
the " State board of control." The former board consists of four 
members appointed by the governor and the State superintendent 
of public instruction. The State board of control is composed of 
three members, all appointed by the governor. It is to be noted 
that the State board of control is in charge of the business manage- 
ment of the State normal schools, while the board of regents is the 
administrative head in all educational matters. 

In theory New York has the State-local type of control. Local 
boards of " not less than 3 nor more than 13 " members are placed over 
each of the 10 State normal schools. As was stated in a paragraph 
above, the State board of regents is actually the administrative head 
of the public-school system. The local boards are purely advisory 
bodies and their local management is subject to the commissioner of 
education and the board of regents. In commenting on the place of 
the local boards Mr. Thomas E. Finegan says: 

Local boards were established when these institutions were first organized 
and before the State board of regents had general supervision of all educational 
matters throughout the State. Since the educational work of the State was 
unified and the State board of regents was made the general legislative educa- 
tional body of the State, there is not the reason for local boards in charge of 
educational institutions that previously existed. You will readily understand, 
however, how difiicult it is to abolish local boards after they have once been 
established. 

Appointment, tenure, and size of boards. — The following methods 
of appointment were noted : Appointment by governor ; by governor, 
with confirmation of one of the houses ; by governor, with approval 
of both houses; by legislature; by State board of education; and by 
popular vote. The predominant method is to recognize the governor 
as the executive head of the State and the one responsible to the 
public, and to check the arbitrary exercise of the appointing power 
by requiring confirmation by the legislative department of the State 
government and specifying certain qualifications. South Carolina 



THE ADMINISTRATR'E CONTROL. 35 

and New York place appointment Avith the legislature, in Pennsyl- 
vania the State board of education appoints, and Michigan makes it 
a matter for popular vote. 

The tenure varies from 2 years in Connecticut to 12 in New York. 
In Massachusetts and Pennsylvania the term is 3 years ; in California, 
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New 
Mexico, and Virginia, 4 years; in Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, 
Ohio, and Wisconsin, 5 years; in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Mary- 
land, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ore- 
gon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas, 6 j^ears; 
in Arkansas, 7 years; in New Jersey, 8 years; and in New York, 12 
years. A 6-year term is most prevalent, with 4 and 5 following in 
order. The term of ex officio members is, of course, determined in 
some other way and is usually 2 or 4 years. One, two, or three mem- 
bers are usually appointed annually or at each regular session of the 
legislature and retire accordingly in the same way. In some States 
one member is appointed annually. In such case the number of mem- 
bers and the tenure must necessarily be the same. New York is a good 
example of the method of appointment. There are at present 12 
members of the State board of regents, 1 member being chosen from 
each of the nine judicial districts of the State and 3 from the State at 
large. Members are elected by a joint ballot of the State legislature. 
The term of office is 12 years, 1 member being elected annually. 

In regard to size, the tendenc}'' seems to be toward a board of from 
5 to 9 members. Arizona, Kansas, and Washington have small boards 
of 3 members, while the boards of Georgia vary from 9 to 20 members. 
Michigan has a board of 4 members; Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New 
Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota have 5 ; Idaho and Texas, 
6; Colorado, Connecticut, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and 
Oklahoma, 7; Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, and New Jersey, 8; 
Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, and Tennessee, 9; South 
Carolina and Wisconsin, 11; New York and Virginia, 12. Small 
boards are usually ex officio, but the Kansas State board of adminis- 
tration is an exception. The law specifies no qualifications. The 
board at present is composed of E. T. Hackney, a lawyer ; E. W. Hoch, 
ex-governor and editor; and Mrs. Cora G. Lewis. They give their 
entire time to the work and receive an annual salary of $3,500 each. 

Qualifications of members of boards; the data concerning qualifi- 
cations. — An examination of data under this head reveals that few 
States specify qualifications for board members other than the re- 
strictions relative to residence, political party, sex, and relationship 
to institutions. Later legislation reveals a tendency toward the 
selection of a board composed of persons who are somewhat prepared 
for the work they are to do. Indiana and Ohio merely provide that 
their boards shall be composed of "competent persons," but Iowa 



36 STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

law specifies that " they shall be selected solely with regard to their 
qualifications and fitness to discharge the duties of the position." 
Oklahoma is more specific, and requires that two of the appointive 
members shall be practical school men who shall have had at least 
four years' experience in actual school work, two years of which 
shall have been in the State of Oklahoma. South Dakota laws con- 
tain the f ollow^ing provision : " They shall be persons of probity and 
wisdom and selected among the best and best-known citizens." 
The Maryland law requires that "members must be of high char- 
acter, integrity, and capacity." The North Dakota (1915) legisla- 
tion provides that the State board of regents " shall consist of five 
members, all of whom shall be equally qualified electors and tax- 
payers of the State, appointed for their fitness and ability to effi- 
ciently serve the people of the State in such capacity." Under this 
provision the board is composed of two business men and farmers, 
a lawyer, a former governor and business man, and a physician. 
The Iowa board shows the following composition: Lawyer, editor, 
engineer and contractor, two bankers, and a merchant and banker. 
This board selects from outside its own membership a committee of 
three, called the finance committee. This body has charge of all the 
financial transactions of the institutions under the management of the 
board. According to Mr. W. H. Gemmill, the secretary of the State 
board, the finance committee performs the executive functions of 
the board, and in reality is " the eyes and ears of the board." This 
committee was formerly composed of two editors and Mr. Gemmill, 
who was superintendent of schools at Carroll, Iowa. Of course the 
members of the finance committee devote their entire time to com- 
mittee work. A discussion of the composition of these boards is not 
offered to prove that the bodies in these States are of higher char- 
acter than in those where no qualifications are required. The dis- 
tinctive feature is that they are chosen to perform a definite function 
and are compensated for it. 

Opinions concerning value of types of control. — Letters were ad- 
dressed to a number of State educational officers and normal-school 
presidents requesting statements of their opinions concerning the 
best type of normal-school control. Naturally, most of the replies 
contained statements approving of the form of control now existing 
in the State in question. The reasons given for this approval are 
often illuminating, however, and valuable comparisons between sev- 
eral States are often included in these replies, a number of which 
are quoted, iii part, below. 

Principal J. M. Green, of the Trenton (N. J.) State Normal 
Schools, concludes, " I am of the opinion that it is an advantage to 
have all the State normal schools of the State under one board." 



THE administrativp: conteol. 37 

Mr. W. H. Gemmill, secretary of the Iowa State Board of Educa- 
tion, writes: 

While the single board of education for the management of the State educa- 
tional institutions has been in existence only a few years, yet I assure you that 
the results already secured have far exceeded the expectations of the framers 
of the measure. The people of this State are convinced that the statute is a 
wise one, and the State board of education has the confidence and support of 
the leading people among all classes. 

President G. E. Maxwell, of the Winona State Normal School, of 
Winona, Minn., summarizes the advantage of control by a single 
State board for normal schools in this paragraph : 

Our unit board for all normal schools has proved a very excellent arrange- 
ment. It serves to bring a well-conceived and harmonious budget to the legis- 
lature, which has not failed in several sessions to appropriate every cent asked 
for. It unifies the schools, prevents unsafe and disorganizing forms of compe- 
tition for students, maintains uniformity of standards of admission, instruc- 
tion, and graduation. 

President John H. Keith, of the State Normal School at Oshkosh, 
Wis., says: 

My judgment is that the single board for the control of the normal schools of 
the State works out very effectively. I had formerly been used to a board for 
each school, as in Illinois. There are, of course, certain advantages in having 
a board of trustees for each school. There are also certain disadvantages. 
My judgment is that the single board for all normal schools of the State is 
preferable. 

Mr. Keith adds this comment : 

Perhaps the greatest merit of the system as it has appeared in Wisconsin is 
that the normal schools have not had to take any backward step. A nonpaid, 
nonexpert board has to be convinced that a proposal meets a social need and 
that it is a wise, ,sensible method of meeting it. When the board is thus con- 
vinced, mistakes are infrequent. 

President Charles McKenny, of the Ypsilanti (Mich.) State Nor- 
mal, says : 

In comparing the administration of Michigan normal schools with that of 
other States, I think I am warranted in saying that the administration of the 
State board has been relatively efficient. 

The Michigan State board is peculiar in that it has only four mem- 
bers and is elected by popular vote. In regard to the latter feature 
Mr. McKenny comments : 

I am inclined to think from observation in Michigan and Wisconsin that, so far 
as these two States are concerned, at least as good a quality of men has been 
chosen by popular election for regents of the university and for members of the 
State board of education in Michigan as was appointed by the governor of AVis- 
consin to similar boards. * * * While theoretically a board of four is not 
ideal, as there is always a possibility of a deadlock, the practical working out of 
the problem in Michigan for the past 15 years has been in all respects creditable. 



38 STANDAEDIZIFG STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

A criticism of unit control is made by Principal H. H. Roberts, of 
the Las Vegas (N. Mex.) Normal University. Mr. Roberts states: 

For the past five years this institution has been practically governed by the 
president. The board of regents meets from time to time to pass upon his rec- 
ommendations, but each employee is employed and dismissed with the full assur- 
ance that his actions would be approved by the regents. Previous to that the 
board attempted to govern everything. Since the new regime the school has 
grown from 227 pupils for the nine months to practically 400, and the summer 
school from 69 to 430. I am convinced that the less the board has to do with the 
operations of a school the better it is for the school. If the president can not 
control the school, they should dismiss him and secure some one who can. * * * 
I do not believe in a single body over all the institutions of the State. There is 
only one possible conclusion of this, and that is that some one will dominate the 
whole board to the advantage of one institution. Initiative could do little under 
such conditions. 

Commissioner of Education David Snedden, in commenting on the 
Massachusetts system, says : 

My conviction is that the training of the teachers for the public schools of any 
particular State should be under one authority, even though several schools dis- 
tributed through the State are devoted to the work. It might be well to have 
local advisory committees of citizens. 

President E. W. Bohannon, of the Duluth (Minn.) State Normal 
School, offers the following argument in favor of a single State 
normal-school board. Mr. Bohannon says: 

I have had experience in educational work in four States — Indiana, Illinois, 
Massachusetts, and Minnesota. It is my judgment that the administrative 
system for the normal schools in Minnesota is decidedly better than that in 
the other States mentioned. * * * j think it is advantageous to have these 
schools in charge of such a board rather than a State board of education 
intrusted at the same time with other responsibilities of an educational char- 
acter. They are more likely to show initiative and far less likely to become 
mechanized, stereotyped, and bureaucratic. It is more immediately incumbent 
upon them to acquaint themselves with the demands made upon them and to 
devise ways and means of meeting them. They are more likely to experience 
the impetus to effort that comes from doing things on their own initiative. I do 
not believe there are any public boards which render so high a grade of 
service as the nonsalaried board, when rightly constituted. I know that no 
salary could obtain for Minnesota the quality of service which the State 
normal school board has i-endered, and I am perfectly certain that a State 
board of education would not be composed of men who would render services 
of like value. The duties would be too heavy for a nonsalaried board. 

An excellent judicial discussion of the advantages of control by 
local boards versus control by a single State board is contained in 
the following quotation from a letter written by President David 
Felmley, of the State Normal University at Normal, 111. In this 
State at present control of each school by a separate local board of 
trustees prevails. Writing concerning his own board, Mr. Felmley 
says : 

Because of the size of the board and its infrequent meetings, great authority 
is placed in the hands of the president of the institution. He is expected to 



THE ADMINISTKATIVE CONTROL. 39 

recommend all appointments and dismissals of teachers, all increases in salaries, 
etc., and his recommendations are acted upon without amendment. In 15 years 
only one case has occurred in which recommendations of this kind were not 
promptly ratified, usually with very little discussion. In that case, after some 
discussion, the president changed his recommendation, whicli then was indorsed. 

While the centering of power and responsibility in the liands of the president 
adds much to the promptness and directness with which tilings are brought to 
pass, nevertheless there are certain disadvantages in our system. The infre- 
quent meetings of the board and the large size of the board both tend to diminish 
the sense of responsibility in the members and their active personal intei-est 
in the institution. Yet it must be said that some members of this board have, 
in spite of these tendencies, been of very high service to the institution. This 
has been due to the high character of the men who have composed the board 
and to the fact that usually half of them are active teachers and superin- 
tendents and to the long terms through which they have continued in ofhce. 
Judge Green, of Cairo, served for 41 years ; Supt. E. A. Gastman, of Decatur, 
for 36 years ; Mrs. Ella Plagg Young served for 25 years ; and many others 
for more than 20 years. 

I am inclined to believe that a board of six, such as is found in connection 
with the younger normal schools, chosen from the territory immediately tribu- 
tary to the normal school and holding more frequent meetings, is likely to be 
a more efficient body. 

The efficiency and economy commission of Illinois has recommended one board 
for the five State normal schools. The normal school presidents themselves are 
inclined to prefer the present arrangements, for they believe that 35 men, resid- 
ing usually in as many different counties and with the interests of a single 
institution at heart, are more likely to feel the personal responsibility for the 
welfare of that institution, are more likely to interest school boards in employ- 
ing normal-school graduates and prospective teachers in attending normal 
schools than if a single board of a few members is charged with the entire 
responsibility. 

It is believed that the total expense of the present board of 85 is no greater 
than the expense of a unit board of 9, if they give the same measure of atten- 
tion to the various normal scliools as is now given. 

On the other hand, it must be confessed that the normal schools find great 
difficulty in securing unity of procedure in entrance requirements, in graduation 
requirements, in their definition of a unit of credit, in their fees required of 
students of different classes, in the amount of credit given to work in other 
institutions, etc. 

While it is not desirable that the State normal schools of Illinois should have 
identical courses of study, it is important that they should have equivalent 
courses of study and that the units of credit should be equivalent and inter- 
changeable. This we have been unable to bring to pass under the pi*esent 
organization. 

Finally, an extreme plea for the absolute local autonomy of each 
normal school with no restrictions from any central State authorities 
may be noted in the following quotation from a letter by John R. 
Kirk, president of the State Normal School at Kirksville, Mo. In 
Missouri each normal school is controlled by a local board of trustees. 
Mr. Kirk says: 

There is no direct relation of the normal school to the State board of educa- 
tion. This is fortunate, since the normal school is closer to its constituents 
(the people, the school boards, and the public schools) than any State board of 



40 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

education can possibly be. Each normal school, therefore, adapts itself to the 
community which it is appointed to serve, and no normal school is obliged to 
conform to what the other normal schools of the State find themselves required 
to do. * * * 

I might say, in conclusion, that the normal schools of Missouri, by virtue of 
their organization and great freedom, are among the most fortunate in the coun- 
try. They are not dominated by [a State] commissioner of education * * *. 
They are not subordinated to the State university as normal schools in many 
other States are. They have no respect for the traditions of those men and 
institutions who think that the normal schools should offer a short cut to " pro- 
fessional education." Missouri normal schools stand for the idea that the 
normal-school graduate should be introduced to his profession by the normal 
school and should thereby be placed on a par with the graduate of the medical 
college and law school so as not to need recasting and relabeling by a university 
or any other institution. 

Conclusions. — I. The results of any study of this nature are only 
further evidence., hut not unquestioned., of the general tendeiicy toward 
administrative centralization. The tendency of recent legislation is 
evidence of the general movement to centralize responsibility and 
power in normal school control, and, in fact, in all educational mat- 
ters. Any review of legislation would be impossible in this paper, 
but the facts relating to the most recent legislation may be briefly 
enumerated. At least two States have passed during the present year 
legislation providing for greater centralization of power. California 
has abolished her joint board of normal school control and vested 
its powers in the State board of education. North Dakota has a new 
law creating a State board of regents, a body which is to take over 
the functions of the former " State board of normal school trustees " 
and to have charge of the higher institutions of the State. A normal- 
school president in North Dakota saj^s, in explaining the change of 
control, that " it was unnecessary duplication and extravagant use 
of money that led to the board of regents." 

II. The recent legislation indicates a demand for educational quali- 
fications for the appointive members of the administrative boards. 
There seems to be a recognition of the fact that such bodies to be 
efficient must have clearly defined functions and be composed of per- 
sons who are capable of administering the business. Ex officio boards 
are rightly passing away. 

III. Though there are widely different views, my own investiga- 
tion causes me to favor a single hoard given sufficient power and so 
organized as to act effectively a^ the administrative head of the State 
public-school system. To meet the objections of extreme centraliza- 
tion a local advisory body properly constituted and organized might 
well work in conjunction with such a State body. 

IV. The status of the principal or president of the normal school 
should be determined. Though the study does not make this a major 
point in the investigation, one at once is impressed with the issue. 



THE ADMINISTEATIVE CONTROL. 41 

The prominent fact is that principals possess all degrees of power 
and responsibility. New York and Connecticut represent two ex- 
tremes. In New York the principal is responsible to the commissioner 
of education for the general management and direction of the school. 
In regard to Connecticut Mr. Charles D. Hine, secretary of the State 
board, says: "There is no State supervision of the normal schools. 
The principals substantially control the schools. They are not in 
accord except in the strong purpose to be unmolested." 

Section II. INTERPRETATIVE DISCUSSION OF FACTORS IN ADMINIS- 
TRATIVE CONTROL OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

In the preceding section of this chapter a concrete discussion of 
the present status of State normal school control was presented by 
Mr. Henry. His study was based on State educational codes and 
wide correspondence with educational officials. In the present sec- 
tion the authors of the bulletin present their oAvn interpretative dis- 
cussion of some of the factors involved in the administration of 
State normal schools. 

Types of governing authorities of State normal schools, — Among 
the existing forms of governing authorities of State normal schools 
as described by Mr. Henry, many types are found, each of which in- 
volves some one of the following elements, or combinations of several 
of them : 

1. State superintendent or commissioner of public instruction. 

(a) With relatively permanent tenure, or 

(b) Elected for a short period of years. 

(c) Chosen because he is an educational expert, or 

(d) Elected because of political affiliations. 

2. State boards of education or State educational administrative 
boards or State normal school boards. These may vary in the same 
ways as indicated under number 1. 

3. Local boards of trustees. 

4. The principal or president of a single normal school. 

5. The faculty of a single normal school. 

Local boards of trustees usually do not determine educational 
policies. — As a rule, a local board of trustees in charge of a single 
normal school plays very little part in determining the educational 
policies of the school. For the most part such boards are not com- 
posed of persons who are in a position to know the educational heeds 
of the State. They generally supervise the expenditure of the State 
funds and are often active in soliciting such funds from the legis- 
lature. They usually approve automatically any educational policies 
put up to them by the more purely educational officers, such as the 
president of the normal school. Consequently, the part played by 
local boards of trustees will not be considered further in this chapter. 



42 STANDABDIZIKG STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



*% 

1 



Faculties usually not composed of general educational experts. — • 
Probably in most normal schools the most influential parties in de- 
termining the policies of the school are the faculty and the president. 
It is commonly assumed that the faculty of an institution is best 
qualified to determine its general educational policies. In some 
instances this may be true, but in many it is not. The teachers in 
higher educational institutions, including normal schools, are not 
employed, as a rule, because thej are general educational experts, but 
because each one is presumably an expert in some specialized subjects 
or in several related subjects. The individual teacher usually has 
little interest or competence in general educational problems. In 
nearly all questions of general policy that arise, his point of view is 
determined by the interests of his special department. Consequently 
legislation by such a group of specialists becomes largely a problem 
of balancing the Avishes and claims of a group of specialists. Even 
if the result were determined by mathematical averaging (as is some- 
times the case), the courses of study and other products of faculty 
deliberations would not correspond to the real needs of the prospec- 
tive teachers attending the normal school. The matter is made even 
worse, however, when certain dominant personalities in the faculty 
secure a disproportionately large recognition of the claims of their 
departments, resulting in overemphasis on some one subject, such as 
the history of education, or psychology, or nature study, or art, or 
any other subject. Furthermore, special difficulty is usually encoun- 
tered under schemes of faculty control in securing a proper develop- 
ment of the practice teaching situation, which, as will be seen in the 
next chapter, is one of the most important factors in the successful 
training of teachers. 

Normal-school president is most dominant influence in many 
systems. — Very often, even when the faculty is nominally in control 
of the educational policies of a normal school, these are really deter- 
mined by the president. So powerful is this presidential control in 
some American schools that their characteristics are generally attrib- 
uted to the presidents (or principals) by outside educators who are 
familiar with them. Under this type of leadership some of the schools 
have served the interests of the State admirably, sometimes for a 
whole generation under one president. When such a man is a com- 
petent general educational expert and administrator, objectively in- 
terested in the educational welfare of the whole State, he usually 
succeeds in maintaining a normal school with a course of study nicely 
balanced according to the real needs of public-school teachers, and a 
practice-teaching situation in which all of the efforts of the institu- 
tion are centralized and by which all departments are tested. 

Central State educational officers sometimes supervise normal 
schools. — In some States a central educational authority of the State 



THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL. 43 

supervises to some extent the activities of the normal schools. This 
authority may reside in some type of State board or in the State 
superintendent. The possibilities of such authorities modifying the 
normal-school situation in a State are well illustrated in New Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts, and Kansas. 

Nexo Hampshire normal school changed through action of State 
superintendent. — In New Hampshire the law requires that " the super- 
intendent of public instruction in his annual (biennial) report shall 
state the condition of the [normal] school (schools), the terms of 
admission and graduation, the times of the commencement and close 
of the sessions." Acting under this law, State Supt. Morrison in- 
cluded the following items in his report for 1911-12 (p. 156) concern- 
ing the normal school at Plymouth : 

Financial. — In the last report of this office (1909-10) the following statement 
was made : 

" The management of the income of the Plymouth school has for some time 
been growing lax and in some items extravagant. The matter has been called 
to the attention of the trustees, and I have no reason to doubt that they will 
take prompt steps to correct the evil." 

On December 28, 1910, after several weeks of cax*eful investigation, I addressed 
a communication to the board of trustees, calling attention in detail to what 
seemed to be extravagant and unauthorized expenditui-e of the public funds. 
The matter was taken up by the board at a meeting held early in the month of 
January, and a firm of expert accountants was employed by Gov. Bass. The 
report of the accountants revealed a very untoward condition of the finances of 
the institution, involving entirely improper use of public money, as well as 
numerous unauthorized expenditures extending over a period of years. The 
matter received prolonged consideration by the board, and the accountants, as 
well as the principal and his attorney, were heard. On July 16, 1911, the prin- 
cipal's resignation was accepted. 

The Keene finances were meantime well conducted. 

The entire arrangement for financial administration at Plymouth was changed. 

In discussing the educational policies of the State normal schools, 
Supt. Morrison describes the steps taken by the State department to 
improve the course of study and the quality of the teaching in the 
two State schools. This description will be quoted in a later chapter 
on course of study. 

Critical studies of Massachusetts normal schools., directed hy Com- 
missioner Snedden. — In Massachusetts we find State Commissioner 
Snedden attacking the problems in a much larger normal-school 
situation than that of New Hampshire. In his report for 1912-13 
he describes the initial steps in getting the normal-school authorities 
to make a critical study of their own practices. The need of such 
critical study and the possibility of a central State authority's secur- 
ing the cooperation of local normal school authorities in improving 
their own activities are tactfully suggested (pp. 24-26) by Mr. 
Snedden in the following paragraphs: 

Marked differences have always existed among the normal schools as regards 
courses of study and requirements for practice teaching. Each school has ex- 



44 STANDAEDIZING STATE NOKMAL SCHOOLS. 

hibited considerable individuality in the matter of its aims, means, and methods 
of instruction, thus often reflecting the particular educational philosophy of the 
principal or the composite opinion of the stronger members of the faculty. 
Within reasonable limits this is an excellent policy. It is not desirable that 
all the schools should be of one pattern as regards their courses and methods of 
instruction, although, as suggested elsewhere, general standards as to aims and 
practices should be agreed upon by all schools, after which departure from such 
standards may be made by individual schools as mattei's of conscious and 
purposeful policy. 

It is not practicable in this report to indicate in detail the diiferences which 
have hitherto existed among the normal schools in their programs of pro- 
fessional training. Some of these difCei'ences have arisen from praiseworthy 
attempts to do experimental work in new and complex fields of education. In 
other cases practices established by accident or for temporary reasons have 
become fixed as customs, the educational value of which must be carefully tested 
from time to time. 

All educational practice is now in process of slow transition from a primitive 
stage of development, in which customs accidentally initiated, or formed by 
slow growth, have prevailed to a stage wherein intelligent planning and the 
measurement of results shall give the basis of a more scientific formulation and 
control of courses of instruction, methods of teaching, and general supervision. 

Because of these changing conditions the commissioner, the principals, and 
various groups of special teachers in the normal schools have, during the last 
four years, been holding a series of conferences at which existing programs of 
normal-school instruction have been subjected to careful examination in order 
to discover means of making these programs more effective. 

These conferences have revealed a wide divergence of views on almost every 
phase of normal-school instruction. Each school, in one or more divisions of 
its work, had long followed practices which seemed to it valid. The discus- 
sion and analjsiK involved in these conferences resulted temporarily in a 
mensurable unsettling of convictions, often lifelong, held by many teachers. 
This disturbance has now wholly subsided, but in all the schools a fine and 
sound professional spirit has been sho\\n in the effort to revise normal-school 
programs in the interest of greater efficiency. Some of the proposals to this 
end, now under consideration, are discussed in the following section of this 
report. 

Because of the complexity of the problems involved in training teachers, it 
is as yet too early either to indicate positively the prevailing forms of ineffi- 
ciency in normal-school programs, or to state concretely proposed improve- 
ments. A scientific attitude necessitates careful and painstaking study of 
these problems. Existing practices can not, with safety, be discontinued or 
hastily modified. It is, however, highly important that the principals and 
teachers in the normal schools shall show that they are alive to the need of 
steady improvement in educational practice, and that, individually, and 
especially by joint effort, they shall continue to give time and effort to the 
discovery of ways and means to secure greater efficiency. 

Kansas State normal-school system changed hy the State adminis- 
trative hoard. — The third example which we shall note of a central 
general educational authority modifying the normal schools of the 
State is ttie work of the State administrative board of Kansas. This 
board was organized in 1913 to have administrative charge of all 
of the higjier educational institutions of the State. It is a salaried 



THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL. 45 

board, but tlie members of it are not educational experts. The board 
has been very active in reorganizing the normal-school situation 
in the State, and some statements of its procedures are contained in 
the following quotations from its official reports. Its general plan 
of administration is described in the following paragraphs: 

In accordance with the direction of the law, we organized on Slarcli 20, 1913, 
and although there was no provision to pay our salaries, we found it neces- 
sary to spend all our time in the schools until July 1, when we took full 
charge. We met with the retiring boards and worked on the catalogues and 
courses of study submitted to us by the faculties, passed on the budgets and 
nominations made by the presidents, and had the necessary work which we 
were directed to do in shape on July 1, 1913, when the old boards went out of 
existence. Since that time we have been in continuous session. 

The board of administration, as soon as it organized, called in the heads of the 
institutions for a conference and announced to them that it would hold each of 
them strictly responsible for the internal management of his institution and 
would not attempt any unnecessary internal management. As it visited the 
schools, it completed its work by reelecting all members of the faculties recom- 
mendo<l by the presidents and filled vacancies upon their i*ecommendation. The 
board has consistently followed this plan from the beginning. 

The board has met with the presidents each month and thoroughly can- 
vassed the question as to the kinds of teachers to be employed in the schools 
and all other problems involving their welfare, and we wish to express to 
Chancellor Strong, Presidents Waters, Butcher, Brandenburg, and Lewis our 
gratitude for the way they have put aside their individual interests and advised 
with the board for the good of the system as a whole. * * * 

CONSOLIDATION OF BUSINESS OFFICES AND PUKCHASING DEPARTMENTS. 

The board found that each of the institutions was maintaining elaborate Imsi- 
ness offices and purchasing departments, and for economy and efficiency in buying 
consolidated them all at Manhattan until room could be secured in the statehouse. 
It i3 thus able to do the work for all the schools at what it formerly cost to do the 
work at one school. The saving is thousands of dollars. Instead of purchasing 
at retail and in small lots, we have joined with the boards of control and cor- 
rection, buying in large lots direct from the manufacturer. We thus save the 
difference between the manufacturer's price and the retailer's price — a large 
item of saving for the State. 

UNIFORM REGISTRATION SYSTEM. 

We have put in a uniform system of registration and record keeping and 
evaluation of credits, and can now transfer clerks and students' grades from 
one school to another, so that they will be able to take up the system without 
trouble. We have also installed in all the schools an up-to-date system, by which 
it will be possible to refer promptly, and without expense of time, to the grades 
of every person who attends the institutions. We have been put to a great deal 
of trouble and expense in searching through odds and ends of old records in 
some of the institutions, frequently having to go back to the old class books of 
instructors to find the grades of students who desired to complete their work 
in that or other institutions. A careful system of keeping these all-important 
records in these institutions would have saved thousands of dollars. * * * 



46 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



ADMISSION TO THE NORMAL, COLLEGE, AND UNIVERSITY, AND HIGH-SCHOOL 

VISITATION. 

The institutions of higher learning in the United States are pretty thoroughly 
standardized. In order that the institutions under our control shall maintain 
their standing in these associations and make their degrees of any value, it is 
necessary not only that they shall do good work themselves, but also that they 
shall know and certify the work of preparatory schools whose students they 
take without examination. They must either examine the school that is prepar- 
ing the student or examine the pupil when he appears for admission. The first 
plan has become the accepted one, and wlien we began our duties the university, 
the agricultural college, and the normals each maintained a separate system 
of visitation in the high schools. The result of this system was that the repre- 
sentatives of all these institutions would frequently visit one high school during 
the year, and none of them reached every high school. We established a com- 
mittee on school relations to do the work of visitation systematically. 

Michigan and Minnesota. — The three examples described above, 
namely, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Kansas, depict situa- 
tions in which specialized, salaried State ofRcer.s took an active part 
in the control of State normal schools. The operation of another 
type of central control is seen in the cases of Michigan and Minne- 
sota, where a nonsalaried, special, central State board has charge of 
the normal schools of each State, and this board in each case is in- 
fluenced more or less by recommendations from the presidents of the 
State normal schools. Sometimes the board appears to follow the 
recommendations of the presidents of the several schools, and in other 
cases to act more independently. An example of the actions of the 
Michigan board is given below on page 117 (concerning special 
teachers) and of the Minnesota board on pages 102-104: (concerning 
training high-school teachers) . More complete historical descriptions 
of typical developments in cases where the presidents of the State 
normal schools have cooperated with such a central board of control, 
would be illuminating in determining the value of this type of admin- 
istrative arrangement. To some observers it would seem to be the best 
type, since it may involve a committee of educational experts (normal- 
school presidents) presenting joint recommendations to a responsible 
board which represents the people of the State and the interests of 
all sections of the State. It is probably desirable to have the State 
superintendent of public instruction an active member of the board 
which controls the normal schools in order to bring to the assistance 
of this board such expert services as he and his office can render. 



Chapter V. 
PRACTICE-TEACHING FACILITIES. 



An important factor in determining success of normal school. — 
One of the most important factors in determining the possible and 
actual success of a normal school is the practice-teaching facilities. 
This fact is generally recognized and admitted by most normal-school 
authorities, and has been referred to in Chapter III, where one of the 
four conditions which was emphasized in determining the location 
of a normal school in a town was the possibility of expanding the 
practice-teaching facilities so as to take care of any number of stu- 
dents that may come to a normal school. 

Zone of normal school should be limited by practice facilities. — 
Where an existing normal school is unfortunately located so that the 
limit of adequate practice-teaching facilities is reached, the State 
authorities should take cognizance of this fact, place a limit on the 
attendance at the normal school and a proportionate limit on the 
funds devoted to its maintenance ; so restrict its zone or district that 
the latter will be adequately served; and proceed to establish a new 
normal school, so located that it may always provide adequate prac- 
tice facilities for the area it is to serve. 

New Hampshire norTnaZ schools so planned. — That the development 
of the normal-school policy of a State may actually follow these lines 
is shown in the report of State Supt. Morrison, of New Hampshire, 
from which quotations have already been made. In the quotation 
concerning the Plymouth Normal School (see above, p. 23) Mr. Mor- 
rison stated that the practice-teaching facilities restrict the growth of 
this school to 150 students and are hardly adequate for this number. 
According to the same report, the public schools of Pljmiouth enroll 
about 300 to 350 children Avho are 14 years of age and under. On the 
other hand, Mr. Morrison estimates that the Keene Normal School 
could take care of an annual enrollment of 480. The public schools of 
Keene enroll from 1,100 to 1,200 children 14 years of age and under. 
From these figures it would appear that Mr. Morrison estimates that 
the schools which are available for practice purposes of a normal 
school that maintains only a two-year course for high-school gradu- 
ates should contain from two and one-half to three times as many 
pupils as there are students in the normal school. The amount of 

47 
15607°— 16 i 



48 STANDABDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

practice which Mr. Morrison contemplates is contained in his state- 
ment that " each student before graduation must ' make good ' by- 
teaching one-half of each school day for 18 weeks in the practice 
schools, being responsible for the conduct of classrooms for that time." 
(P. 153.) 

Standard needed for amount of practice teaching per graduate. — 
The last paragraph suggests that, in order to carry out the policies 
described above, it is necessary to determine some measure or standard 
by which the practice-teaching facilities of a town can be measured. 
Obviously the first step in determining this standard is to ascertain 
how much practice teaching should be required of each normal-school 
graduate, and the conditions under which it should be done. 

Practice-teaching conditions should approximate real conditions. -r- 
To take up the question of conditions first, it is generally admitted 
that the closer these approximate the real situations as they exist in 
ordinary public schools the better. This means from 40 to 60 children 
in a room divided into not more than two sections. A further condi- 
tion is the possibility of placing a practice teacher in charge of this 
situation for a somewhat continuous period — for example, every 
morning for from 1 to 18 weeks. This does not mean that all the prac- 
tice teaching in a given normal school need be done under these condi- 
tions, since a student may profit a great deal from teaching much 
smaller groups of children for a half hour a day for several weeks. 
But to get the hest results, the more continuous practice under typical 
school conditions she aid also be provided. It Is provided in a great 
many situations; hence it can be provided, and all normal schools 
should be so located as to make possible such provision. As long as it 
is easily possible to secure the hest conditions, there is no justification 
for being satisfied with inferior provisions. 

Artificial training school plus subsidy of loccd public schools. — 
The two tj^pes of conditions described above, namely, small groups 
of children under somewhat artificial conditions for initial practice 
teaching plus regular full rooms for longer continuous teaching un- 
der real public-school conditions, are secured by constructing a large 
training or practice school under the direct charge of the normal 
school, and making arrangements with the local city authorities for 
practice teaching in the regular public schools. Such an arrangement 
is usually effected by State subsidy of some form to the local public 
schools. This subsidy may take a variety of forms ; for example, it 
may involve the normal schooFs paying an increase of salary to certain 
of the teachers who act as critic teachers, or paying all of the salaries 
of such critic teachers, or increasing the salaries of all teachers, etc. 
In addition to the subsidy, the normal school sometimes furnishes 
gratis expert supervision for part or all of the activities of the public 
schools that are used for practice teaching. In a few cases the public 



PRACTICE-TEACHING FACILITIES. 49 

schools are placed entirely under the direction of a normal-school 
officer. 

Examples. Mayville, N. Dak., using town schools {1912). — The 
following are typical examples of arrangements for practice teach- 
ing in public-school systems. The 1912 report (p. 61) for the State 
Normal School at Mayville, N. Dak., states that : 

The public schools of Mayville have continued to be used as the practice 
department. For eight months of each school year the normal school has 
paid each of the grade teachers and the principal of the public schools from 
$20 to $25 per month, in addition to their regular salaries, and the local board 
of education $62.50 a month toward meeting the expenses of heating and 
janitor service in the public-school building. The total cost per year to the 
normal school has been about $1,700. In return for this outlay the normal 
school has been permitted to let the members of its senior class, under the 
direction of the normal-school supervisor of practice, observe and teach in the 
grades at certain hours of the day throughout the eight months of the year 
when both schools are in session. The supervisor of practice has received the 
assistance of the public-school principal and grade teachers in the management 
and instruction of the senior class. 

New Hampshire contracts give State charge of local yractice 
■schools. — In New Hampshire — 

contracts with the local communities give the normal schools the xise of the 
entire elementary system in the town of Plymouth and in the city of Keene for 
model and practice purposes. 

At De Kalb, III., a town of 8,000 population — 

all practice teaching is done in the city schools. Two schools are used fur this 
purpose. One of them is in the normal training school building ; the other Is 
in one of the city buildings. Each is an eight-grade school. 

The director of the training department is also superintendent of 
schools of the city. 

Providence, R. I.; normal training school plus many " training 
stations " in public schools. — Finally, one of the most completely 
developed practice teaching situations, as far as facilities are con- 
cerned, is that of the State Normal School of Providence, E. I. The 
regular enrollment of the normal school for 1913-14 was 460 students, 
all high-school graduates. The number in the graduating class for 
1913-14 was 134. To provide practice teaching facilities for this 
number the normal school has a training school of its own, 9 other 
" training stations " in the public schools of Providence, and 15 
" training stations " in neighboring towns. The official description 
of this elaborate system is given in the following quotation from the 
catalogue for May, 1914 (p. 30) : 

THE SCHOOL OF OBSERVATION. 

The school of observation, on the first floor of the normal building, com- 
prises a kindergarten and eight grades, with one room for each grade and 



50 STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

one ungraded room. There are about 40 pupils in each of the regular grade 
rooms. Most of these children come from the city district adjoining the 
building. Others from outside the district may be admitted on the payment 
of tuition at the rate of $32 a year for the liindergarten and primary grades or 
$40 a year for grammar grades. 

The course of study in this school is similar to that in the Providence public 
schools. The same subjects are taught and the same books are used. In addi- 
tion, much time is given to various forms of practical training. The girls have 
sewing in grades 5 and 8, and cooking in grades 6 and 7. The boys have wood 
and metal work or printing. 

An effort has been made to connect the manual training as closely as possible 
with elementary science, in which many of the boys have become greatly 
interested. 

The functions served by the school of observation are as follows : 

1. It furnishes opportunity for the students of the normal school to see good 
teaching. It supplies illustrative material for class discussions on methods. 
Lesson plans may here be tested and criticized from experience, instead of on 
a theoretical or imaginary basis. It is to the normal school what the clinic 
is to the school of medicine. It helps to keep the work of the normal school 
on the right basis by constantly magnifying the practical instead of the 
theoretical. It gives a worthy ideal to the prospective teacher. 

2. It furnishes under the most helpful and encouraging conditions an oppor- 
tunity for the young teacher to begin her practice teaching. For one hour of 
the day the school may be used for this' work. The rest of the day the children 
spend under the regular grade teachers. By having this preliminary practice 
so closely connected with the study of methods, something more is added to 
the discussions than could be gotten from observation alone. At the same time 
the student has an opportunity to do her first teaching in a most stimulating 
environment, and with little responsibility for the general discipline of the 
room. Her first effort may thus be given to a masterly presentation of her 
subject, unhampered by needlessly disturbing conditions. She gains confidence 
in her own ability, learns to be critical of herself and to accept criticism from 
others, and in a measure gets the professional point of view, which is, essen- 
tially, that by continued endeavor and the wise use of aids of various sorts, it 
is possible to continually improve in skill and general teaching ability. She is 
brought to a recognition of the fact that good teaching is fundamental to 
discipline. It follows that the young teacher is here trained to emphasize the 
essential matters, and that she is well fitted for the next step in her preparation, 
the training school. 

3. It is a meeting place for theory and practice in the school itself, offering 
to teachers in the different departments facilities for testing themselves and 
their own methods in the light of experience with the children for whom the 
work is intended. 

4. It should illustrate for those teaching elsewhere the methods and courses 
recommended by the normal school. The school of observation should be the 
model school through which the State may present, as far as possible, its ideal 
of a satisfactory public school. It should not attempt to carry on its work ex- 
pensively or to include courses which may not to advantage be included in 
other public schools. Its aim should be to show how a course of study that is 
truly efficient in its results may at the same time be conducted with economy. 

5. While the main functions of the observation school are those expressed 
above, it would not fulfill its duty to the State if it did not provide opportunity 
for the study and evaluation of new ideas which seem to give special promise 
of worth. Its work with the Montessori material is an illustration of this point. 



PRACTICE-TEACHING FACILITIES, 51 

THE TRAINING SCHOOLS. 

The training schools are established by contract with the local authorities. 

At present there are 24 such centers established as follows : 

Grades for 
practice. 

Barrington: Lincoln Avenue School 5-7 

Bristol : 

Oliver School 1, 5 

Walley School 4, 5 

Burrillville: Harrisville School 2,4 

Central Falls: Garfield Street School 1,6 

Cranston : 

Eden Park School 4,6 

Meshanticut Park School 1-7 

East Providence Grove Avenue School 3,4 

Pawtucket : 

East Street School 1,3 

Prospect Street School 6,7 

Providence : 

Bridgham School 5, 6 

Doyle Avenue School 5, 6 

Branch Avenue School 3,4 

Grove Stx-eet School 2,3 

Regent Avenue School 1, 3 

Temple Street School 3,4 

Thayer Street Grammar School 5,7 

Willow Street School 1, 3 

Camp Street School l-A 

South Kingston: West Kingston School 1-8 

Warwick: Apponaug School 4,5 

Westerly : Bradford 1-4 

Woonsocket : 

Pothier School 3, 4 

Willow Street School 2, 4 

Each training school has a critic teacher nominated by the trustees of the 
normal school and elected by the school committee in the town or city in which 
she serves. Two of the regular schoolrooms are set aside for student teachers 
under her direction. Here the young teachers receive a thorough training in 
the actual work of the schoolroom for a full half year of apprenticeship. 

This system of training embodies to a remarkable extent the recommenda- 
tions of the " Report of the Committee of Fifteen on the Training of Teachers." 
After the first preliminary teaching in the observation school, student teachers 
are trained, not by making them assistants or substitutes or by giving them small 
groups of children, but by placing them in charge of regular schools under such 
conditions as they will meet after graduation. Here, during the five months 
of training, they are tlu'own on their own resources to a large extent. They 
learn to master the work of one grade and to teach with due regard for the 
development of the children; and they gain that close contact with child life, 
so essential to a good teacher, which can be gained only by one who is in 
charge of her own children. 

The West Kingston Training School, of which a plan is shown [on page 52], 
is intended to be a model of what rural schools should be. When constructed in 
1912 it took the place of four single-room buildings, and it is a clear demonstra- 



52 



STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



tion of the possibilities of consolidation. The children are transferred to and 
from the school by carriages. The building is arranged as indicated by the 
plan of the ground floor. The problems of lighting and heating have been very 
satisfactorily solved ; the closets are on the main floor ; in the basement are a 
kitchen and manual training shop, which have been adequately equipped at 
very small expense, and a hot-air engine for pumping the supply of water. 

The school is near the West Kingston railroad station and can easily be seen 
as one passes on the train. 

Calculation of standard for measuring practice facilities of a com- 
munity. — The examples given above are typical of the arrangements 
made in normal schools to secure desirable conditions for practice 
teaching, namely, conditions that approximate as closely as possible 
the real public-school conditions that will confront the new teacher 
when she secures a position. This discussion of conditions was in- 




FiG. 3. — Plan of model rural school of Providence (R. I.) State Normal School, located at 

West Kingston. 

troduced in connection with the attempt to secure some standard 
by which the practice-teaching facilities of a locality could be meas- 
ured. The other factor entering into the determination of this 
standard is the amount of practice teaching to be required of each 
student. To sim]3lify the calculation we shall assume that this is the 
amount to be provided for each graduate in a two-year normal 
course for high-school graduates. 

MinimuTYi, 100 hours per graduate; ma^imurth^ 90 half days per 
graduate. — To begin our analysis we need a fairly representative 
minimum and a fairly representative maximum of the amounts of 
practice teaching that would be considered necessary by normal- 
school authorities. As a fair maximum we may take Morrison's 
figure for New Hampshire, namely, teaching one-half of each school 



PEACTICE-TEACHING FACILITIES. 53 

day for one semester or half year, being responsible for the conduct 
of the classroom for that time. As a minimum we may use the 
minimum amount agreed upon by the representatives of the normal 
schools of Ohio, and which seems to fulfill the legal requirement in 
that State, namely, 100 full hours of actual teaching. This may be 
reduced to the basis of half days and weeks by estimating the num- 
ber of hours in a regular school day. If 5 hours of teaching is 
considered equivalent to teaching a regular school day, the mini- 
mum of 100 hours would equal 20 full school days, or 40 half days. 
Fort}' half days are equivalent to one-half of each school day for 
eight weeks. 

Minimum^ J^. weeks of whole days; 'nuucimum^ 9 loeeks of xohole 
days. — As maximum and minimum amounts of practice teaching, 
then, we would have the following figures as the amount of prac- 
tice teaching to be required of each graduate : MaxlTnuTn — 18 weeks 
of half days, equivalent to 9 weeks of full days. Minimum — 8 weeks 
of half days, equivalent to 4 weeks of full days. 

Each group of children may train two-thirds or one-half times 
4 to 9 practice teachers a year. — Assuming that the regular school 
year is 36 weeks long, we can easily calculate from these figures the 
number of practice teachers that could be accommodated by one group 
of children, providing all of the teaching of the children is done by 
practice teachers. 

With the maximum amount of teaching — namely, 9 weeks of full 
days — one group of children may accommodate 4 practice teachers in 
a year. 

With the minimum amount of teaching — namely, 4 weeks of full 
days — one group of children may accommodate 9 practice teachers in 
one year. 

Not all teaching may he practice teaching ; com^ected estimate. — 
It is not likely, however, that all the teaching of a group of children 
will be done by practice teachers. No community is likely to permit 
more than half of the teaching in the public schools to be practice 
teaching. Moreover, many normal schools restrict the amount per- 
mitted in the training school ; for example, in the quotation from the 
Rhode Island Bulletin given above, it was limited to one hour a day 
with each group of children. Most training schools permit more 
than this; however, probably not more than two-thirds of the teach- 
ing is usually practice teaching. Hence, in order to secure a more 
correct estimate of the practice teaching opportunities afforded by a 
single group of children, we must differentiate the specialized train- 
ing school from the ordinary public school in which some practice 
teaching is permitted. In the training school it may be that two- 
thirds of the teaching will be done by practice teachers, and in the 
public school, one-half by practice teachers. 



54 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

According to this revised estimate we secure the following stand- 
ards: 

In a training school where two-thirds of the teaching is done by 
practice teachers, each group of children will accommodate annually 
two-thirds times 4 to 9 practice teachers. 

In a 'public school where one-half of the teaching is done by prac- 
tice teachers, each group of children will accommodate one-half 
times 4 to 9 practice teachers annually. 

From 20 to Ifi children constitute a " groupP — With these figures 
(namely, two-thirds or one-half times 4 to 9 practice teachers an- 
nually for each group of children) it is only necessary to decide how 
niany children should constitute a group in order to determine the 
practice-teaching facilities available in any community. If we take 
our point of departure for this estimate from the idea that the condi- 
tions should closely approximate real school conditions, we would 
say each group for which a practice teacher is responsible should 
consist of either half or all of a room containing about 40 children. 
Except in specially constructed training-school buildings (where 
there are " group " rooms) the practice teacher w^ould Drobably have 
to be in charge of a full room. 

On the basis of these assumptions, with the standards obtained 
above, the following table is secured showing the number of prac- 
tice teachers which a given number of children may accommodate 
annually : 

Special training-school building. — Twenty children to a group, 
each group accommodating two-thirds times 4 to 9 practice teachers 
annually, two-thirds of the teaching being done by practice teachers. 
The numbers of children which will accommodate annually certain 
numbers of practice teachers in special training-school buildings are 
as follows: 

100 children, 13 to 30 teachers. 
200 children, 27 to 60 teachers. 
300 children, 40 to 90 teachers. 
400 children, 53 to 120 teachers. 
500 children, 67 to 150 teachers. 
600 children, 80 to 180 teachers. 
700 children, 93 to 210 teachers. 
Regular public-school building. — Forty children to a group, each 
group accommodating one-half times 4 to 9 practice teachers annu- 
ally, one-half of the teaching being done by practice teachers. 

The numbers of children which will accommodate annually certain 
numbers of practice school-teachers in regular public-school buildings 
are as follows : 

120 children, 6 to 14 teachers. 
160 children, 8 to 18 teachers. 



PRACTICE-TEACHING FACILITIES. 55 

200 children, 10 to 23 teachers. 

240 children, 12 to 27 teachers. 

280 children, 14 to 32 teachers. 

320 children, 16 to 36 teachers. 

480 children, 24 to 54 teachers. 

640 children, 32 to 72 teachers. 

800 children, 40 to 90 teachers. 
1, 280 children, 64 to 144 teachers. 
Measurement of community practice facilities of typical normal 
schools. — With these figures as a basis, an3'one can proceed to esti- 
mate the possible practice-teaching facilities in a number of typical 
normal schools, using as a basis the figures for school population and 
average daily attendance in the public schools of the community in 
which the school is located as given in the report of the United States 
Commissioner of Education. As a matter of fact, many of the nor- 
mal schools do not actually enjoy such facilities as would be indicated 
by these theoretical calculations, owing to the fact that they have 
training schools with relatively few children, or they have not suc- 
ceeded in making arrangements wdiereby they can utilize half of the 
time in the public schools for practice-teaching purposes. As a con- 
sequence some normal schools have outgrown the most liberal esti- 
mate of practice-teaching facilities at their command, while others 
will soon do so if they begin to provide the number of trained teachers 
needed in their districts. . 



Chapter VI. 
STUDENTS AND GRADUATES. 



Numbers significant only in relation to educational policy. — To 
"know the absolute number of students in the various State normal 
schools is of little importance. On the other hand, to be able to relate 
the number of students to their rank, to the practice-teaching facili- 
ties of the locality, to the scheme of certification in force in each 
State, and to the cost of instruction would be quite instructive in 
determining the value of various types of normal-school policy. 

Reliable data even on attendance are difficult to secure. — Unfor- 
tunately, up to the present time it has not even been possible to 
secure reliable published figures of the absolute size of most normal 
schools in terms of the number of students under instruction at any 
one time. This is due to the fact that so many normal schools simply 
give in their catalogues and published reports the number of different 
students enrolled during the year, including the summer term. In- 
asmuch as many of these students are in attendance for only six 
weeks, the data merely confuse instead of enlightening the reader. 

Exceptional and excellent statistics by Supt. Evans, of Missouri. — 
The possibility of making a clear and illuminating report on normal- 
school attendance in a State where tljere are many short-term students 
to complicate the situation is illustrated by the accompanying table 
from the 1913 report of State Supt. Evans, of Missouri. 

[J/issotm] State Normal School statistics [1912-13']. 

[A model table concerning students and faculty.) 



Years. 



Students enrolled in 
fall term of 1912: 

First year 

Second year 

Third year 

Fourth year 

Total 

Students enrolled in 
winter term of 
1912-13: 

First year 

Second year 

Third year 

Fourth year 

Total 

56 



Kirksville. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



50 
100 
120 
111 



50 
110 
120 
125 



College 
rank. 



Warrensburg. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



110 
60 



290 



102 

80 
85 
45 



101 
100 

47 



316 



109 
108 
55 
58 



College 
rank. 



20.3 

133 

17 

1 



196 
162 
20 



378 



Cape Girardeau 



High- 
school 
rank. 



253 



266 



CoUege 
rank. 



Springfield. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



108 
91 
71 
54 



118 
102 



CoUege 
rank 



Maryvflle. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



197 



College 
rank. 



81 



STUDENTS AND GRADUATES. 57 

[Missouri] State Normal School statistics [1912-13] — Continued. 



Years. 



Students enrolled in 
spring term of 1913 ■ 

First year 

Second year 

Third year 

Fourtliyear 

Total 

Students enrolled 
from September, 
1912^ to May, 1913: 

First year 

Second year 

Third year 

Fourth year 

Total 

Students enrolled in 
summer term of 
1913: 

First year 

Second year 

Third year 

Fom-thyear 

Total 



Kirksville. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



103 
103 



75 
145 
195 
183 



598 



35 
130 
153 
170 



College 
rank. 



135 
95 
93 
52 



375 



190 
140 
100 
60 



Warrensburg. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



105 
102 
60 

77 



135 
144 
108 
120 



507 



199 
232 
189 
109 



College 
rank. 



205 

178 
33 



416 



235 

175 

41 

5 



442 

187 

76 

3 



Cape Girardeau. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



223 
92 



49 



251 
100 
73 
70 



College 
rank. 



238 



126 

71 

35 

9 



Springfield. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



225 
231 
118 



271 
239 
180 
133 



823 



240 
217 
254 
206 



College 
rank. 



119 

88 
22 



197 
166 
26 



397 



218 
164 
44 
32 



Maryville. 



High- 
school 
rank. 



133 



265 



65 
105 

89 
124 



College 
rank. 



101 
31 



Misi^ouri] State Normal School statistics [1912-13] — Continued. 



Kirks- 
ville. 



Warrens- 
burg. 



Cape Gi- 
rardeau. 



Spring- 
field. 



Mary- 
ville. 



Men in faculty, regular term 

Women m faculty, regular terra 

Total number in faculty, regular term 

Men in faculty, summer term 

Women in facility, summer term 

Total number in "faculty, summer term 

Students attending all the year, Sept., 1912, to May, 
1913 



Number enrolled, fall term, 1913, who were enrolled 
preceding year 

Number enrolled in 1912 who hold four-year high- 
school diplomas 

Number enrolled in 1912 who had no experience in 
teaching 

Number enrolled in 1912 who had less than two years' 
experience 

Number enrolled in 1912 who had two and less than 
five years' experience 

Number enrolled in 1912 who had five or more years' 
experience 



31 
25 
56 
37 
24 
61 

436 

360 

470 

700 

389 

290 

300 



306 
396 
898 
439 
416 
241 



18 
19 
37 
18 
12 
30 

330 

210 

415 

492 

238 

211 

131 



16 
17 
33 
23 
26 
49 

363 

347 

588 

429 

632 

709 

248 



15 
10 
25 
20 
12 
32 

154 

116 

130 

408 

128 

134 

106 



Number of different persons enrolled in 1912: 

Male 

Female 



652 
1,027 



479 
1,515 



373 
699 



781 
1,237 



165 
617 



Total. 



1,072 



2,018 



782 



Number enrolled from September, 1912, to August, 
1913, m the following courses: 

Education 

Vocal music 

Agriculture 

Nature study 

Cooking 

Plain sewing 

Dressmaking 

Free-hand drawing 

Mechanical drawing 

Elementary hand work 

Woodwork 

Forge and machine shop work 



1,450 

900 

500 

100 

60 

50 



400 
15 
150 
400 
30 



3,534 

566 

959 

164 

172 

104 

68 

489 

32 

59 

54 

56 



1,738 
565 
294 

28 
124 
236 

53 
486 

58 
117 
173 

24 



4,123 
810 
518 

79 
265 

94 

137 

1,360 

41 
431 

63 



953 
202 
259 



143 

37 



263 

17 

205 

119 



58 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

[Missouri'] State Normal School statistics [1912-13'} — Continued. 



1 



ElirksviUe. 



"Warrensburg. 



Cape Girar- 
deau. 



Springfield. 



Marjrville. 



Average daily attendance . . . 

Number of daily recitations . 

Highest number of pupUs 
enrolled in any class 

Least number of pupUs en- 
rolled in any class 

Average number of pupils 
per class 

Average age in years of those 
attending 



50 



23 20 
21 22 



, 415 
192 

60 

5 

31 

26 



1,218 
224 



465 
93 

56 

5 

22 

22 



This report is remarkable for the numljer of interesting things 
that can be learned from it. It gives practically every kind of infor- 
mation that anyone might want concerning the registration of stu- 
dents in any normal school in the State. For example, take the school 
at Warrensburg. According to the ordinary method of reporting, 
Warrensburg would be reported as having 1,994 students (different 
persons enrolled) during 1912-13. But a glance through the col- 
umns shows that the average attendance in the fall, winter, and 
spring terms was only 660, 687, and 746, respectively, jumping up 
to 1,415 in the summer. Furthermore, by glancing elsewhere in the 
table we can see that about half of these students are of high-school 
grade — i. e., in the fall term there were 354 college students, or about 
the same as the number in the larger Massachusetts normal schools. 
Moreover, the analysis of this number of college students in the fall 
term shows that there was only one senior (fourth-year student) and 
17 juniors (third-year students). The rest were freshmen and 
sophomores. Unf ortimately, this report does not give the number of 
graduates in the various courses offered. 

Need average attendance to measure number of students. — One of 
the most important and most useful figures given in this Missouri 
table is the average daily attendance for each term. This figure is 
also given in the tables in Commissioner Snedden's report for Massa- 
chusetts which will be used in a later chapter. It is a figure that all 
school authorities are now familiar with as the standard basis for 
reporting attendance in elementary schools. Its utility as a basic 
measure in such reports, for making various calculations and com- 
parisons, is generally recognized. It would be just as useful for 
normal-school authorities, and until it comes into common use in 
normal-school reporting there is little prospect of securing reliable 
comparative measures of most normal-school activities. 



STUDENTS AND GRADUATES. 59 

Students of high-school rank reduce professional efficiency. — The 
proportion of high-school and college students in a State normal 
school is important from the standpoint of serving the State's pur- 
poses, for which most normal schools are established, namely, train- 
ing teachers for the State rather than furnishing a convenient form 
of general education for certain communities. In other words, if 
normal schools have to spend a portion of their funds and energy in 
giving general high-school instruction, to that extent they are handi- 
capped in their efforts to give special professional training for 
teachers. Hence, if the high schools of a community are capable of 
providing the necessary high-school instruction, it would be unnatural 
to find students of high-school grade in the local normal schools. If 
the high-school situation of a State has been inadequate, but is im- 
proving, a parallel elimination of high-school students from the 
normal schools might be expected. 

Examples of professional improvement through elimination of 
high-school pupils. — Good examples of this process of gradually 
raising the normal-school standards as local high schools improve are 
found in the reports of a number of States. 

Idaho. — In Idaho, for example, the improvement in the Albion 
Normal School is described in the 1912 report of the State superin- 
tendent in the following words (p. 29) : 

The last two years have seen a rapid advancement in educational work of all 
kinds in soiitliern Idalio. The higli schools are growing rapidly in numbers, and 
those established are strengthening their courses of study. In a few years prac- 
tically all students will be enabled to secure the greater part of their high-school 
work in their home schools, with the possible exception of the work in science, 
advanced manual training, and advanced domestic science, proper laboratory 
facilities for which are too often wanting in the smaller schools. These in- 
creased facilities have already relieved and will relieve the State schools from 
the necessity of providing for the high-school training of many students who 
formerly were compelled to secure their high-school training at a State insti- 
tution, if they secured it at all. The result has been a distinct change in the 
class of students attending the State Normal School at Albion. At the time 
of the opening of the school in 1895 there were not a half dozen real high schools 
in the State, and it is thought there was not a high-school graduate among the 
students enrolled the first year. The students were compelled to take up even 
seventh and eighth grade work because they had not had opportunities to get 
that work. In consequence, the lower classes far outnumbered the higher classes 
and the heaviest enrollment was in the preparatory department, which was 
really doing seventh and eighth grade work. 

Each year the students have offered better preparation in their work as the 
schools of the State have offered better facilities. The preparatory department 
has long since been dropped, and the few students applying for work formerly 
done in that department are accommodated in the training school. Each year 
the number of students asking for high-school work has decreased, and each 
year the number of high-school graduates enrolled has increased. * * * It is 
the policy of the school to relieve itself of all high-school work as rapidly as the 
advancement of the school facilities of the State will permit and ultimately to 



60 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



require high-school graduation for admission to all courses. Every teacher in 
the common schools should be a high-school graduate, with at least two years 
of professional training in addition to his high-school work, and that ideal is 
being rapidly approached, more rapidly than many may realize. 

Louisiana. — Another good example of tliis progressive elimina- 
tion of students of high-scliool grade from the State normal schools 
is found in the report of the Louisiana State Normal School for 1914 
(p. 11). It reads as follows: 

Prior to the opening of the summer quarter in 1911, the requirement for 
admission to the Normal School was the completion of the seventh grade of the 
public schools. At that time the course was advanced a half year. In June, 
1912, the standard was raised another half year, bringing the requirement for 
admission up to the completion of the eighth gi-ade or first high-school year. In 
December, 1913, another advance of a half year was made. Therefore, during 
the last three yeai's, the normal course of study has been raised by one and one- 
half years of public-school wox-k. On June 1, 1914, another advancement of a 
half year will be made. * * * 

The effects of this raise in standard are twofold, to wit: 

1. Better training of students, arising from a more advanced grade of pupils 
and an emphasis on more advanced subjects of instruction. The changes have 
made possible the introduction of higher courses in mathematics, the languages, 
and all the sciences; and the relegation to the lower terms of many branches 
of high-school grade which were formexiy taught in the most advanced classes. 

2. An arrest in the numerical growth of the student body, a condition that was 
anticipated. The effect in this direction of advancing the standard of curric- 
ulum is revealed by the fact that the enrollment in the three lowest terms 

(those that have been eliminated) was 161 during the spring term of 1911. 

Virginia. — Similarly in the report of the State superintendent of 
Virginia for 1911-12 appears the following statement in the report 
of the president of the normal school at Farmville (p. 442) : 

The marked improvement in the rural schools has, to a great extent, changed 
the personnel of the neAv students who enter each year. Instead of being forced, 
as in the past, to offer a year of review work in the public-school branches, we 
are now able to enter practically all our students not lower than the second year 
of the academic course. The professional courses, open to graduates of approved 
three and four year high schools, enrolled a larger number than ever before. 

Massachusetts and Rhode Island admit only high-school gradu- 
ates. — As examples of States that have completed the process of 
eliminating high-school students there are the normal schools of Mas- 
sachusetts and Rhode Island, which have reached the point where they 
are open only to high-school graduates. In discussing this fact Com- 
missioner Snedden, of Massachusetts, says in his report for 1912-13 
(pp. 23-24) : 

The requirements for admission to the normal school have long constituted a 
serious problem. When students were received from the elementary schools, 
as was once the case, the normal-school courses were, as a result, mainly aca- 
demic, rather than professional, in character. Massachusetts was one of the 
first States to raise the standards of admission to normal schools by requiring 
high-school graduation as a condition for entrance. 



STUDENTS AND GRADUATES. 61 

Graduates of high schools on the approved list of the New England College 
Entrance Certificate Board, or of high schools approved by the board of educa- 
tion, are now admitted to the normal schools on certification. Applicants not 
holding certificates are required to take an examination, the questions for which 
are prepared under the direction of the board. Through this inspection and the 
accompanying testing of the work of the smaller high schools, the board has 
been able to raise to some extent the standards of high-school instruction 
throughout the State. 

Tligh-school graduates must also pass entrance examinations in ele- 
mentarTj school subjects in Rhode Island. — The Rhode Island Normal 
School report for 1913 gives a general discussion of the raising 
of standards in order to secure more effective results from available 
facilities in the training of teachers for the State (p. 14). The 
report states that as early as 1906 steps were taken to eliminate 
high-school students in order to make room for distinctively normal 
students. In 1913 the standards were further raised by establishing 
for high-school graduates a series of entrance examinations in the 
elementary-school subjects as described in the following paragraph 
(p. 25) : 

By a recent vote of the trustees it has been determined that all students 
entering the Rhode Island Normal School hereafter shall be given a series of 
tests in the elementary subjects, and that serious failure in two or more of 
these subjects will disqualify for admission. All courses at this school will pre- 
suppose a good working knowledge of the essentials. Reviews in these ele- 
mentary subjects should, therefore, be taken in the high schools rather than in 
the Normal School. 

Tests will be given in the following subjects : 

In arithmetic, for accuracy and facility in the use of numbers, including 
simple fractions, decimals, and percentage, and for correct solution of the 
ordinary problems required of children in elementary schools. 

In English, for connnand of correct and clear English and for knowledge of 
the elements of grammar. 

In history, for the main facts in the history of Rhode Island and of the 
United States, and a general ability to give clear and logical answers. 

In geography, for a general understanding of common-school geography, in- 
cluding location, physical features, climate, industries, and commerce. 

In drawing, for nature and object drawing, mechanical drawing, design, and 
history of art. as indicated in the requirements for this subject. 

These examinations will not be severe. They will be designed to test general 
ability, accuracy of thought, and logical presentation of material, rather than 
mere memory of fact. 

The examinations for admission in September may be taken either in June 
or in September, on the specified dates. For admission in .January they may be 
taken in June, September, or January. Entrance examinations will not be 
given at any later dates than those indicated. Students desiring admission 
must therefore present themselves at one of these regular examinations. 

Chart of advancing standards in Rhode Island. — The accompany- 
ing chart reproduced from page 21 of the 1913 Rhode Island report 
shows the change in the quality of the students registered in the 
normal school. It appears that in 1898 less than half of the students 
(100 from a total of about 220) were taking the full normal course 
for high-school graduates. In 1913 practically all of the students 
were enrolled in this course. 



62 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



General contrast shown. — The contrast between the conditions de- 
scribed in Idaho, Louisiana, and Virginia, on the one hand, and 
Massachusetts and Ehode Island, on the other, is a contrast between 
relatively undeveloped educational situations and highly developed 



475 
450 

425 

400 






























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^_ 


\ 


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375 




























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350 
325 
300 














































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X 












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250 


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225 


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200 
175 
150 
125 
IOC 

75 

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'38 '^5 '00 '01 ^02 '03 m '05 'OG '07 '0& X)3 10 W '\X 19 

— — TOTAL REGISTRATION. 



— — ATTENDANCE IN FULL NORMAL COURSES FOR HIGH SCHOOL 

GRADUATES, NOTINCLUDINQ PREPARATORY, SHORT, OR 
SPECIALCOURSES. 

urban educational situations. As an intermediate example the normal 
schools of Illinois may be cited. 

Illinois represents transition in eliminating high- school students. — 
In Illinois some of the normal schools enroll a large number of high- 
school students, while at least one, namely, the De Kalb Normal 
School, distinctly discourages students of this type from enrolling. 



STUDENTS AND GRADUATES. 63 

In the 1912 report of the trustees of the De Kalb school we find the 
situation discussed as follows (p. 5) : 

The management has not deemed it wise to attach a high-school department to 
the normal school. What is known as the " Lindly " law requires the State 
normal schools to furnish secondary instruction to a certain class of students. 
The number coming to this school is small, as the policy of advising such students 
to seek high-school instruction near enough to their homes to permit them to be 
with their parents has been followed. When they have decided to enter the 
school, however, their legal rights have been secured to them, but the instruction 
has been so managed as to prevent any additions to the faculty on their account. 

On the other hand, a large number of students of high-school grade 
are registered in the normal school at Charleston, 111., which serves 
9 part of the State in which high schools are not so well developed as 
near De Kalb. 

Higher professional requirements for certificates increase propor- 
tion of students of college rank. — That the laws governing the cer- 
tificating of teachers in a given State may have a very large influence 
in determining the number and grade of the students in the normal 
schools of the State is shown by the example of Ohio, which has 
already been mentioned in an earlier chapter (p. 31). 

North Dakota. — Another example occurs in the report of the State 
superintendent of North Dakota for 1910-12, where the conditions 
in that State are referred to in the following quotation from the 
report of the normal school at Mayville (p. 216) : 

There have as yet been no graduates from either the five-year course for 
eighth-grade graduates or the two-year course for high-school graduates. The 
chief reason is that the certification laws of the State do not set a value upon 
graduation from these advanced courses which is enough higher than that set 
upon graduation from the four-year and one-year elementary courses to make 
students desire to take them. 

Minnesota. — The increase in the proportion of students taking the 
courses for high-school graduates which results from increasing the 
requirements for teachers' certificates is well illustrated in the report 
of the State superintendent of Minnesota for 1911-12. On page 104 
the president of the Winona Normal School writes as follows : 

The two years here reported measure the immediate effect of the amended 
statute (3909) limiting the value of elementary diplomas to three years without 
indorsement. During the last two years preceding the passage of the law the 
per cent of graduates from the advanced course was 42. For the first full two 
years since the change the per cent in the advanced course is 72. 

Similarly the president of the normal school at Duluth writes as 
follows (p. Ill) : 

The percentage of high-school graduates enrolled and of students electing 
the advanced courses is larger than ever before. It seems probable that three- 
fourths to four-fifths of the students entering this school hereafter will be 
high-school graduates and that practically all will elect the work of the advanced 
courses. 

15607°— 16 5 



64 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



:ingf 



Combined influence of developing high schools and advancing 
requirements for certificates. — It is quite evident from the above 
discussion that the proportion of high-school students in the State 
normal schools of a community depends to a large extent on the de- 
velopment of high schools in the State and the scheme of certificating 
teachers. As long as high schools are scarce, pupils who desire work 
beyond the elementary school will usually be accommodated in the 
normal schools. As high schools develop, the proportion of such 
students in the normal schools may decrease. Unless the State places 
a premium, however, on high-school graduates taking advanced 
normal courses, by granting them superior teachers' certificates, the 
number of such students in normal schools may not increase rapidly. 
Where such a situation exists (i. e., no certificating premium) nor- 
mal-school presidents may continue to accept many high-school 
students even when the high schools of the community are adequate 
to take care of them. As soon, however, as a good certification law 
is passed in such a State, so as to give adequate stimulus to high- 
school graduates to take a two-year normal course, the normal schools 
will be so crowded with these advanced students that the normal 
schools will probably have to get rid of the high-school students in 
order to accommodate the candidates for graduation in the advanced 
courses. 



Chapter VII. 
FACULTIES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



Supplements statistical discussions in Chapter II. — A statistical 
discussion of various characteristics of normal-school faculties is pre- 
sented in Chapter II. The data given there show the fundamental 
general facts concerning the size, academic training, duties, and 
salaries of normal school faculties in the North Central States and 
provide comparisons with similar facts concerning teachers in col- 
leges and universities in the same territory. 

The present chapter will provide a further discussion of the same 
type of facts. Instead of statistical tables for a given part of the 
country, however, particular examples will be cited as the basis of 
interpretative discussion of some of the issues involved. 

Need competent teachers with cooperative interest in public- 
school work. — Among the most important characteristics of a nor- 
mal-school faculty from the standpoint of serving the purposes of 
the State in training teachers are (a) the degree of cooperative 
interest manifested by the faculty in the training of prospective 
teachers for the real, concrete, detailed tasks which they will under- 
take when they begin to teach, and {h) the competence of the teachers 
to give such training. Normal-school teachers should be more inter- 
ested in the regular daily work of public schools than in anything 
else, and they should be willing and able to cooperate heartily in 
giving students training for such work. The most important meas- 
ure of the eiRciency of a faculty that is composed of competent 
individuals is the extent to which this cooperative interest dominates 
the work of the normal school. This could be determined objectively 
by a study of the productive activities of the faculty and by an 
examination of the efficiency of students after they enter the teach- 
ing profession. A competent observer could find out a great deal 
through personal observation. Neither the competence of the indi- 
viduals composing a faculty nor its cooperative interest in normal- 
school tasks can be fairly judged, as a rule, from printed catalogues 
or reports or from answers to questionnaires. 

Certain objective characteristics easily ascertained from the 
printed announcements. — There are, however, a number of rather 
obvious objective facts about the faculties of normal schools which 

65 



66 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



can be easily determined from printed reports and questionnaires. 
These are of sufficient interest to persons engaged in normal-school 
work to justify their compilation. These facts include the number 
of instructors employed in typical schools and their training and 
salaries. For the present discussion data have been chosen from a 
few institutions which are typical of different sections of the country 
and for which the desired information could be secured from cata- 
logues or other printed material. . 

Number of teachers. Large variation in Twrmal schools of Massa- 
chusetts. — It is interesting to note that very great variation may exist 
in the numbers of instructors employed within the normal schools of a 
single State. Massachusetts is an example. According to Commis- 
sioner Snedden's report for 1912-13, the 10 Massachusetts normal 
schools employ the numbers of instructors indicated in the following 
table : 



Instructors employed in the Massachusetts normal schools, 1912-13. 



Location. 


Number of teachers m — 


Total. 


Normal 
school. 


Model and 
practice 
schools. 


Hyarmis 


9 
10 
11 
13 
14 
15 
19 
20 
20 
21 


6 
14 
25 
20 
17 
14 
9 
6 
13 
11 


15 
24 
36 
33 
31 
29 
28 
26 
33 
32 


Westfieid 


Lowell 


North Adams 


Fitchburg 


Worcester 


Salem 


Boston (Normal Art) 

Bridgewater 


Framingham... 





Thus in one State considerable variation is found, namely, from 9 
normal-school teachers at Hyannis for an enrollment of 67 students 
to 21 normal-school teachers at Framingham for 315 students. 

Variation in 3Iassachusetts approximates variation in country at 
large. — There are in the United States only a few State normal 
schools with staffs smaller than that at Hyannis, and there are not 
many (apart from the large city training schools) that employ more 
than 21 teachers for work of strictly collegiate grade with 11 addi- 
tional critic or model teachers, as is done at Framingham. 

Large faculty at Los Angeles {Col.) normal school. — One of the 
largest faculties in an institution which enrolls only students of col- 
legiate grade is the one in the State normal school at Los Angeles, 
Cal. According to the catalogue for 1914, this school seems to have 
approximately 50 normal-school instructors (not counting student 
assistants) and 14 teachers in the training school. Three supervisors 



FACULTIES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 67 

of practice teaching are included in the 50. This staff instructed 1,405 
regular college students during 1913-14, over 500 of whom gradu- 
ated during the year from collegiate courses of at least two years in 
length. 

Prohably largest faculty is at Ypsilanti (Mich.) normal school. — 
Perhaps the largest State normal school faculty is that of the institu- 
tion at Ypsilanti, Mich. This school enrolls about 1,500 students 
during the regular year, most of whom are of collegiate rank. To 
instruct these students the institution employs about 80 teachers 
in addition to some 15 training teachers in the practice or model 
schools. 

Minimum size which may assure adequate specialization in in- 
struction. — The most important aspects of normal-school work which 
are influenced by the number of normal-school teachers employed in a 
single school are (a) the cost of maintaining the normal school and 
( 5 ) the efficiency of the instruction. In order to have efficient instruc- 
tion, there should be a certain degree of specialization by the teachers. 
For example, the most efficient instruction can not be secured where 
one teacher teaches such unrelated subjects as psychology, English, 
and penmanship ; another, natural science, English, and sewing ; and 
another, natural science, agriculture, and civics, as is the case in one 
small normal school. Even more varied assignments are found in 
other schools. 

Description of theoretical minimum faculty. — In order to secure 
the degree of specialization which is desirable, how many instructors 
must be employed for the strictly normal-school courses and the prac- 
tice teaching in an institution maintaining only two-year courses for 
high-school graduates? The following list is suggested as a mini- 
mum for a small school : 

A. One president, who teaches education part time. 

B. One head of the training school and director of practice teaching, wlio 

teaclies education part time. 

C. One teaclier of history and of tlie liistory of education, 

D. One teacher of geography and nature study. 

E. One teacher of English. 

F. One teacher of mathematics. 

G. Part time of one teacher in each of the following suhjects, who also 

teaches his or her subject in the model and practice school : 
Art. 
Music. 

Manual training. 
Home economics. 
Physical education. 
H. One critic teacher and managing principal of the practice school. 
I. Four additional critic teachers who have charge of groups of children 
in the practice school and of groups of practice teachers. 



68 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

This makes a total faculty of 16, divided as follows : 

Teachers. 
Full time to normal school (including the president and the director 

of the training school) 6 

Part time to normal school and part to practice school 5 

Full time in practice school 5 

Total 16 

This faculty could teach 150 to 175 students. — Such a faculty could 
probably teach efficiently 150 to 175 students in a standard, general, 
two-year course for high-school graduates and 200 children in a prac- 
tice school, and not be at all overworked. These figures are obtained 
by estimating that each full-time college teacher should teach approxi- 
mately as many periods a week as a student recites and that students 
should be organized into reciting sections of 25 each. On this basis 
the faculty could take care of approximately as many groups of 25 
as there are full-time college teachers, or the equivalent thereof, on 
the normal-school faculty. 

Fundamental points in this estimate. — This tabulation seems so 
simple and self-evident that certain fundamental points in it may be 
overlooked. Among these are the following : 

1. A few well-organized courses in education. — There is relatively 
small provision for an instructional staff in education (which includes 
psychology). Instead of many courses in these subjects, there should 
be offered a few well-organized ones which contain the fundamentals 
of educational doctrine presented with clear relation to practical 
teaching situations. Much of the more abstract theoretical material 
can be omitted. Especially should the fact be emphasized that the 
traditional devotion to history of education and an abstract course in 
psychology is open to the gravest objections. 

2. Education taught hy practical administrative experts. — ^The in- 
struction in education is in charge of the two principal administra- 
tive officers, the president of the normal school and the director of the 
training school. This is also important. Both of these men should 
be well-informed, general educational experts as well as expert ad- 
ministrators. They should be qualified to select and incorporate in 
the work in education those discussions that have specific and evi- 
dent value in improving school practice, and to eliminate all other 
material. 

3. Teachers of special subjects serve in hoth normal and training 
school. — The teachers of the so-called special subjects (art, music, 
manual training, home economics, and physical education) serve in 
both the normal school and the practice school. In almost any small 
normal school, one teacher to teach each of these subjects in both 
schools ought to be sufficient. Each teacher, as a rule, should be re- 



FACULTIES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS, 69 

quired to do this instead of using a part of his or her time in the very 
expensive instruction of small groups of normal-school students in 
special curricula. This topic will be discussed more fully in Chap- 
ter XIII. 

4. Liberal supply of critic teachers is necessary. — The provision for 
the supervision of practice teaching seems liberal, but it is necessary. 
It is based on the theory that each critic teacher will have charge of 
40 children, usually divided into not more than two groups, and that 
not more than four hours of practice teaching a day will be permitted 
with each group. By this arrangement each group of children will 
afford 20 hours of practice teaching a week, or 200 hours of such 
teaching in a term of 10 weeks. If one group affords 200 hours, the 
two groups will afford 400 hours per term. If each practice teacher is 
required to do 100 hours of practice teaching for graduation, the 
400 hours afforded by two groups in a term will permit four practice 
teachers to complete their requirement for graduation in one term. 
Hence each critic teacher will be able to offer in one term the com- 
plete amount of practice teaching required by four students. In three 
terms (or the full regular year) on this basis she could jirovide the 
amount of practice required for 12 students. Hence each critic 
teacher can train 12 practice teachers a year. 

Hence the five critic teachers provided in the faculty outlined above 
could take care of 60 practice teachers annually, which is the probable 
number of graduates in a two-year course for high-school graduates 
which enrolls from 150 to 175 students. A proportionate increase in 
critic teachers is necessary as the number of students increases. 

Cost would necessitate reduction of above faculty in a very small 
school. — The above discussion of the minimum faculty for a small 
normal school has been organized primarily from the standpoint of 
efficiency in instruction. The element of cost in instruction is a more 
complicated item to consider. Obviously, if the normal school were 
so small that it could not employ each of the above college instructors 
approximately 20 hours a week in teaching students in groups of 25 
each, the number of instructors should be reduced, with a correspond- 
ing reduction in the degree of specialization permitted. This would 
probably decrease the efficiency of the instruction somewhat, but such 
a decrease must be contemplated where normal schools are so estab- 
lished that they can not secure the best number of students for both 
economical and effective instruction. 

Training of normal-school teachers. Public-school experience., 
academic training., professional, training. — The second aspect of nor- 
mal-school faculties to be considered is the nature of the training of 
the individual members. Three obvious items enter into this con- 
sideration of training; namely, (1) experience in public-school work, 



70 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

(2) academic work in their special departments, (3) professional 
training in their special departments. 

Normal-school instructor's work centers in course of study of local 
public schools. Large possihilities. — It is highly important that the 
detailed concrete nature of the task of a normal-school departmental 
instructor be kept constantly in mind. The beginning and end of 
his endeavor should be the course of study in his particular subject! 
in the community (usually a State or district) where the normal" 
school is located. Specific growth in power to teach this course of 
study should be secured in his normal-school students. All ma- 
terials and methods which are used should be definitely selected 
because they introduce students to practical teaching processes that 
they can carry out with classes of the size and type that they will 
have in the public schools. While this may seem to offer a narrow 
and unattractive outlook to the normal-school instructor, as a matter 
of fact it opens up such large possibilities in the way of preparing 
textbooks and materials for use in the grades that few instructors 
measure up to its possibilities. Many who hold normal-school posi- 
tions consider themselves too big for this type of detailed work, and 
are inefficient as a consequence. 

Best combination of characteristics for successful instructor. — 
There can be very little doubt that intimate contact with the prob- 
lems of public-school teaching is the best possible training for the 
normal-school teacher. In general, such contact is more readily and 
satisfactorily obtained through teaching experience in the public 
schools. In some cases careful scientific observation of school prac- 
tices may serve to give the requisite training, but in ordinary cases 
such observation is not adequate in duration or intimacy to give the 
preparation necessary. 

Parallel with practical experience and no less important is thor- 
ough training in subject matter and in the fundamental principle of 
the science of education. There can be no doubt that the tests of 
intellectual competency have sometimes been neglected in the selec- 
tion of normal-school teachers. It would be a mistake to omit contact 
with schools; it is equally a mistake at this time, when education is 
being studied from the point of view of science, to fall short in rigid 
scientific standards. 

Salaries. Relative salaries most important. — As a final aspect of 
the faculties of normal schools, we shall consider briefly the matter 
of salaries. Here again the gross salaries paid are not so important 
as certain relationships between the salaries of different officers within 
the same normal school and certain matters of per capita cost, which 
will be taken up in the next chapter. However, in order to make 
concrete some of the relationships which we desire to discuss, we 
shall present certain data concerning the actual salaries paid. 



FACULTIES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 71 

Massachusetts salaries typical of loell-develofed system. — For the 
Massachusetts normal schools the situation with regard to salaries of 
instructors is discussed by Commissioner Snedden in his report for 
1912-13 in the following paragraph (p. 35) : 

At the outset of their work in the normal schools their salaries have not been 
large — about $1,000 per year for women and from $1,500 to $1,800 for men. The 
maxinnim salaries available — usually after many years of service — are $1,200 
and occasionally $1,500 for women, and $2,000 to $2,500 for men. 

The above salaries are probably for the regular academic year, not 
including summer instruction. 

Idaho salaries typical of small young school. — A typical schedule 
for a small school is that for the State normal school at Albion, Idaho. 
It occurs in the report of the school for 1911-12 and does not include 
summer instruction. It is as follows (p. 30) : 

Instructors' Pay Roll, Albion (Idaho) State Normal School, ] 912-1 3. 

President $3, 375 

Dean, science 2, 000 

Supervisor training, education 2,000 

German, Latin ; 1, 500 

English 1, 200 

Mathematics, dean of men 1, 200 

History 1, 315 

Agriculture, director of athletics 1,200 

Manual training 1, 200 

English, dean of women 1,200 

Drawing, librarian 750 

Music 1, 100 

Domestic science 1, 200 

Grammar-grade critic 1, 000 

Intermediate-grade critic 1, 000 

Second-primary critic 1, 000 

First-primary critic 1, 200 

Total 23,440 

It will be noticed that this facult}^ approximates roughly the 
theoretical minimum small faculty outlined earlier in the chapter. 

Michigan normal-school salaries average high. — As a third exam- 
ple the salary schedule of the State normal school at Mount Pleasant, 
Mich., is given. This seems to include summer instruction in the 
annual salaries. It is fairly typical of the salaries in the Michigan 
State normal schools and is printed along with those of the other 
schools in the 1912 report of the State board of education (p. 59) . 



72 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

Salary schedule, Central Michigan State Normal School. 



Members of faculty. 



Schedule of 
salaries, 
1912-13. 



Proposed 
salaries for 

1913-14. 
Duplicated 

1914-15. 



President 

Heads of departments: 

Literature and English 

Mathematics 

Geography 

History and civics 

Superintendent of training school. 

Psychology and pedagogy 

Music 

Physiology and physical training. 

Reading and public speaking 

Physics and chemistry 

Agricultural education (new) 

Agriculture and nature study 

Latin and German 

Drawing 

Biology 

Kindergarten 

Women's dean 

Rural schools (new) 



$3, 500 

2,400 
2,300 
2,400 
2,400 
2,300 
2,400 
2,200 
2,200 
2,200 
2,200 



1,900 
1,800 
1,800 
1,700 
1,200 
1,200 



Total. 



Instructors: 

Psychology and education 

Physical education 

Physical training (women) 

Drawing 

Mathematics 

History and civics 

Latin and German 

English 

Domestic science and art 

Manual training 

English grammar and rhetoric 

Music 

Supervisor of drawing, training school . 
Harmony and accompanist 



Total. 



Critic teachers: 

First grade 

Second grade.. 
Third grade... 
Fourth grade . . 

Fifth grade 

Sixth grade 

Seventh grade . 
Eighth grade.. 



Total. 



83,500 

2,500 
2,300 
2,500 
2,500 
2,500 
2,500 
2,200 
2,400 
2,400 
2,400 
2,500 
2,000 
1,900 
1,900 
1,900 
1,200 
1,500 
2,000 



36,100 


42,600 


1,400 


1,500 


1,400 


1,500 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1.200 


1,150 


1,200 


1,150 


1,200 


1,100 


1,200 


1,100 


1,200 


1,200 


1,500 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1,000 


1,100 


500 


500 


16,000 


16,900 


1,200 


1,200 


1,050 


1,100 


1,200 


1,200 


1,050 


1,100 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1,200 


1,050 


1,100 


1,200 


1,200 



9,300 



Large salaries for principal officers at De Kalh, III. — A schedule 
that resembles the Michigan schedules in general range of salaries 
is that of the State normal school at De Kalb, 111., except in the fol- 
lowing special items, according to the report of the board of trustees 
for 1911-12 (p. 21) and a letter from the president: The president 
received an annual salary of $5,000 ; the supervisor of training, $4,500 ; 
and the professor of pedagogy, $3,450. One primary critic received a 
salary of $2,000, but the other critics received about $1,000 each. 

An efficient president should have proportionately a very large 
salary. — Perhaps the most important relationship within the salary 
budget of a normal school that is worth considering is the rela- 



FACULTIES OF STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 73 

tive amount of the president's salary as compared with those of 
the other officers. As indicated in our discussion of the control of 
normal schools, the president is usually the great dominant factor 
in determining the character of any school. In order to be a striking 
success, he must be a sort of universal genius as far as the work of 
elementary schools and normal schools is concerned. He ought to 
know all about the needs of the elementary schools of the State (as 
well as the high schools in a few cases), and he ought to be very 
well-informed concerning just what should be done in each depart- 
ment of the normal school. Furthermore, he ought to be able to 
select instructors w^ho are competent to do their special tasks as de- 
scribed on page 42 and to see that they succeed. With the exception 
of the director of the training department, it would appear that the 
position of any other member of the faculty is relatively insignificant 
as compared with that of the president. In fact, in many schools, the 
vacating of the instructorships in some departments for several years 
would have little effect on the efficiency of the graduates of the school. 
In view of these facts, if the president of a normal school is the type 
of efficient person postulated above, he deserves a relatively large 
salary as compared with members of the faculty. As an educational 
officer he is a much more important leader than the president of a 
college or small university, although as a financial officer he may not 
be so important. 

Good critic teachers highly important; should command good 
salaries. — The other relationship between salaries within a given 
normal school which we shall consider is between the salaries of the 
critic teachers and the salaries of the departmental instructors or 
professors. The point of departure for our consideration here is the 
fact that every normal-school graduate who has had the good fortune 
to teach for 100 hours under the careful supervision of a superior 
critic teacher has probably profited more in terms of efficiency from 
this experience than from any 1,000 hours of departmental instruc- 
tion in the normal school. This being the case, it is highly impor- 
tant that sufficient money be set aside in the budget for salaries of 
critic teachers to secure such superior supervision for all prospective 
graduates. 

Good critic should receive superior grade-teacher'' s salary^ plus 
training salary. — Just how this should be paid to individuals involves 
a variety of considerations which we can not carry through to their 
logical conclusion here. For example, to begin with, a superior critic 
who is teaching 40 children would probably receive $800 to $1,000 in 
a good city system simply for teaching the children. Hence, this item 
ought to be assumed as a part of fundamental training-school main- 
tenance to begin with. The question then arises, How much should 



74 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

she be paid in addition as a factor in the training of normal-school 
graduates ? Since she can train only about 12 graduates a year, this 
becomes a question of how much the school is willing to pay for a 
service which, as postulated above, is more valuable than any other 
service in the school, but is rendered to only a few students. We shall j 
not attempt to give a precise answer to the question which we have 
raised, but shall say in general that some normal schools would 
greatly increase their concrete effectiveness by subtracting money 
from the salaries of departmental instructors and using it to in- 
crease the effectiveness of the supervision of practice teaching. 



Chapter VIII. 
NORMAL-SCHOOL COSTS. 



Reliable per capita costs commonly used now in public schools 
are needed in normal schools. — During the last 15 j^ears the develop- 
ment of a standard technique for measuring per capita costs in ele- 
mentary schools and high schools has made available each year a 
body of reliable, precise information concerning expenditures in 
public schools. School officials find this information of very great 
value in studying problems of maintenance and expenditure. It is 
perfectly possible and highly desirable to develop the same type of 
measurements and technique in State normal schools. Normal-school 
presidents frequently attempt to make such calculations by using 
data published in the tables in the reports of the United States 
Commissioner of Education. The calculations and the comparisons 
based on these are usually not valid, however, because the original 
data do not permit of the calculation of reliable comparative con- 
clusions of the type indicated. 

Comparative per capita data of lo Massachusetts schools furnish 
excellent examples for reliable comparisons. — An excellent beginning 
in the calculation of comparative unit costs in State normal-school 
maintenance has been made by Commissioner Snedden, of Massachu- 
setts, with the annual expenditures of the 10 State normal schools of 
that State. The carrying out of the scheme involves (1) the devel- 
opment of uniform methods of accounting which analyze expendi- 
tures into fundamental items which are worth measuring, and (2) 
the development of uniform, standard methods of measuring attend- 
ance in terms of average membership for the year. Both of these 
items are clearly evident in the Massachusetts tables which are 
printed in the annual report of the State board of education for 
1912-13 (pp. 19 and 192-194) and are reproduced below: 

75 



76 



STANDABDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 










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78 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

Other normal schools can parallel Massachusetts data. — It is an 
easy matter for any normal-school official who has some understand- 
ing of statistical methods to proceed to secure parallel data for his 
own school and to work out similar per capita costs. The types of 
bookkeeping sheets to be used could be devised by reference to the 
headings of the columns in the Massachusetts tables. Moreover, in 
view of the general importance of the issues involved, Commissioner 
Snedden would probably be glad to send sample accounting pages 
to any normal-school president who desires to develop a parallel 
accounting system for his own school. In a letter to the authors, 
Commissioner Snedden states that it is the intention of the depart- 
ment to improve on certain details of the method, and not to publish 
the data every year. 

Special notes on certain items in the tables. — Probably the only 
items in these tables that need any special explanation are the follow- 
ing : On page 76, under salaries, wages, and labor, the item " general 
administration" should be explained so as to indicate whether it 
includes the principal's salary and the salaries of clerks, janitors, 
librarians, etc. The items "normal school" and "training school" 
under this general heading may include only salaries paid for in- 
struction. Another item that needs explanation is the item "re- 
ceipts," in the last column on page 77. This seems to include all 
receipts by the normal school of funds other than those furnished by 
the State, excepting fees for room and board. 

For comparative purposes other schools should reduce costs to 36 
or 40 weeks basis. — In comparing the per capita costs in his institu- 
tion with those in the above tables, any normal-school official must 
keep in mind that the above per capita costs represent the costs for 
one student of collegiate grade during one regular acadenrdc year of 
approximately 36 or Ifi loeeks^ not including the summer term. In 
normal schools where a large number of the students are of high- 
school rank, this fact should be taken into consideration. In schools 
where summer terms are maintained and the summer budget is a part 
of the regular annual budget, these facts must be allowed for. 



Chapter IX. 



GENERAL COURSES OF STUDY FOR HIGH-SCHOOL 

GRADUATES. 



Differentiated general courses for high-school graduates. — The dis- 
cussion of the courses of study of normal schools is complicated by 
the fact that some institutions offer so many different courses of 
study ; for example, one excellent institution outlines 13 in its cata- 
logue. This is probably necessary in schools where students are 
received at any stage of schooling from the first year of high school 
to the second year of college, and where several courses of study are 
offered for teachers of special subjects. In normal schools which 
maintain only two-year courses for high-school graduates there are 
two standard general courses which most of the students folloAV, 
namely, the course for kindergarten-primary teachers and the course 
for intermediate and grammar-grade teachers. Only these two 
courses will be discussed in this chapter. Courses for prospective 
teachers of special subjects will be discussed in Chapter XIII. 

Recent differentiation of courses for teachers of lower grades 
and upper grades. — The differentiation of the two-year general 
courses for high-school graduates into those for teachers of the 
lower grades and those for teachers of the higher grades is a rela- 
tively recent innovation. For a long time in many schools one 
standard general course w^as taken by all prospective elementary 
teachers, regardless of whether they expected to teach in the lower 
grades or the upper grades. This single course was made up of some 
work suited to primary teachers, some to upper-grade teachers and 
some of a general character often not suited to either. For example, 
the courses in the teaching of reading and handwork usually em- 
phasized the work of the primary grades, the courses in geography 
and history were especially related to upper-grade work, and the 
psychology and history of education were not related to either. 

More specific aims and training now being emphasized. — The 
differentiation of the two general courses is part of a movement to 
provide for more definite and specific purposes in normal-school 
training. The problem of training a teacher for the first three grades 
of the elementary school becomes a perfectly definite one when care- 
fully studied and analyzed. Two years is a short time in which to 
prepare a high-school graduate adequately for such work; hence 
15607°— 16 6 79 



78 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

Other nomnal schools can fcirallel Massachusetts data. — It is an 
easy matter for any normal-school official who has some understand- 
ing of statistical methods to proceed to secure parallel data for his 
own school and to work out similar per capita costs. The types of 
bookkeeping sheets to be used could be devised by reference to the 
headings of the columns in the Massachusetts tables. Moreover, in 
view of the general importance of the issues involved, Commissioner 
Snedden would probably be glad to send sample accounting pages 
to any normal-school president who desires to develop a parallel 
accounting system for his own school. In a letter to the authors, 
Commissioner Snedden states that it is the intention of the depart- 
ment to imp)rove on certain details of the method, and not to publish 
the data every year. 

Special- notes on certain items in the tables. — Probably the only 
items in these tables that need any special explanation are the follow- 
ing : On page 76, under salaries, wages, and labor, the item " general 
administration" should be explained so as to indicate whether it 
includes the principal's salary and the salaries of clerks, janitors, 
librarians, etc. The items "normal school" and "training school" 
under this general heading may include only salaries paid for in- 
struction. Another item that needs explanation is the item "re- 
ceipts," in the last column on page 77. This seems to include all 
receipts by the normal school of funds other than those furnished by 
the State, excepting fees for room and board. 

For comparative purposes other schools should reduce costs to 36 
or 40 weeks basis. — In comparing the per capita costs in his institu- 
tion with those in the above tables, any normal-school official must 
keep in mind that the above per capita costs represent the costs for 
one student of collegiate grade during one regular academic year of 
approximately 36 or IfO loeeTcs, not including the summer term. In 
normal schools where a large number of the students are of high- 
school rank, this fact should be taken into consideration. In schools 
where summer terms are maintained and the summer budget is a part 
of the regular annual budget, these facts must be allowed for. 



Chapter IX. 



GENERAL COURSES OF STUDY FOR HIGH-SCHOOL 

GRADUATES. 



Differentiated general courses for high-school graduates. — The dis- 
cussion of the courses of study of normal schools is complicated by 
the fact that some institutions offer so many different courses of 
study ; for example, one excellent institution outlines 13 in its cata- 
logue. This is probably necessary in schools where students are 
received at any stage of schooling from the first year of high school 
to the second year of college, and where several courses of study are 
offered for teachers of special subjects. In normal schools which 
maintain only two-year courses for high-school graduates there are 
two standard general courses which most of the students follow, 
namely, the course for kindergarten-primary teachers and the course 
for intermediate and grammar-grade teachers. Only these two 
courses will be discussed in this chapter. Courses for prospective 
teachers of special subjects will be discussed in Chapter XIII. 

Recent differentiation of courses for teachers of lower grades 
and upper grades. — The differentiation of the two-year general 
courses for high-school graduates into those for teachers of the 
lower grades and those for teachers of the higher grades is a rela- 
tively recent innovation. For a long time in many schools one 
standard general course was taken by all prospective elementary 
teachers, regardless of w^hether they expected to teach in the lower 
grades or the upper grades. This single course was made up of some 
work suited to primary teachers, some to upper-grade teachers and 
some of a general character often not suited to either. For example, 
the courses in the teaching of reading and handwork usually em- 
phasized the work of the primary grades, the courses in geography 
and history were especially related to upper-grade work, and the 
psychology and history of education w^ere not related to either. 

More specific aims and training now being emphasized. — The 
differentiation of the two general courses is part of a movement to 
provide for more definite and specific purposes in normal-school 
training. The problem of training a teacher for the first three grades 
of the elementary school becomes a perfectly definite one when care- 
fully studied and analyzed. Two years is a short time in which to 
prepare a high-school graduate adequately for such work; hence 
15607°— 16 6 79 



80 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

there should be definite assurance that everything included in the 
course has specific value in improving the practice of primary teach- 
ers, and no important aspect of the work of such teachers should be 
omitted from the training. The same things are true of the course 
for upper-grade teachers, but here it is even more difficult to give 
adequate training in two years ; hence several of the more highly de- 
veloped normal-school systems are gradually making a transition to 
three-year courses for high-school graduates who expect to teach 
in the upper grades. 

Specific training emphasized hy Morrison. — The importance of 
specific purposes is often overlooked by normal-school authorities, 
more especially by the departmental instructors; hence it will be 
given special emphasis here by means of quotations from the dis- 
cussions of State Supt. Morrison, of New Hampshire, and Commis- 
sioner Snedden, of Massachusetts. In an earlier chapter on normal- 
school control the part played by Supt. Morrison in modifying the 
work of the New Hampshire normal schools was described (see p. 43). 
In his report for 1911-12, in discussing the modifications introduced 
in-the course of study, he says (p. 152) : 

In the last biennial report of this office the tlieory under which the training 
process was [formerly] administered was explained. In brief, individual 
freedom and general development were emphasized, and specific training in 
methods and school management minimized. This conception of the training 
process was common to both schools, and a reversal of the process has taken 
place in the two schools simultaneously. The theory had come to break down 
in practice. Graduates were found to have acquired considerable general ability 
as teachers, and after a time, under the oversight and instruction of a superin- 
tendent, acquired facility in schoolroom routine. They did not learn how to 
teach and how to handle a school. 

A program has been prescribed by the trustees calculated to give specific and 
definite training for teaching in the elementary schools of this State. The 
State course of study is made the basis of instruction in methods, and the same 
is made the course of study in the model and practice schools. Thus, the students 
under training are made familiar from the outset with the line of work which 
they must carry out as teachers. It is further provided that each student 
before graduation must " make good " by teaching one-half of each school day 
for 18 weeks in the practice schools, being responsible for the conduct of 
classrooms for that time. 

The principals have faithfully carried out this program. 

It is too early to report definitely upon results, since at the time of writing 
the graduates have taught for less than six weeks. We are, however, in- 
formed by the superintendent of schools in Manchester that the seven gradu- 
ates of the Plymouth class of 1912, now teaching in that city, have shown 
marked and unusual capacity in the schoolroom. There is nothing peculiar in 
this case, and no doubt substantially the same report would come from the 
majority of the graduates of 1912 at both Plymouth and Keene. 

It is obvious from this report that vague general purposes and 
training have been replaced by specific purposes and training in the 
New Hampshire normal schools. 



COURSES OF STUDY FOR HIGH-SCHOOL GRADUATES. 81 

Need of more specifiG aims eTnphasized hy Snedden. — One of the 
best discussions of this general policy and of the general principles 
that should govern the organization of normal-school courses of study 
and instruction is found in Commissioner Snedden's elaborate report 
for 1912-13 on the Massachusetts normal schools, which has been 
quoted many times in this bulletin. In his conferences with the 
principals and faculty representatives of the 10 normal schools, the 
following propositions were made the basis of the discussion so far 
as it aifected the course of study : 

1. The purpose of each type of instruction and training offered in 
the normal schools shall be more effectively defined. 

2. Normal-school training should be effectively correlated with the 
educational practices in town and city schools. 

3. Certain of the professional subjects, especially psychology and 
the history of education, should be more effectively taught, if they 
are to justify their presence in the curriculum. 

4. There is need of a clearer understanding of the needs, limita- 
tions, and possibilities of typical normal-school students. 

5. The professional training given by the normal schools should be 
differentiated according to the probable field of service in elementary 
schools to be entered by the prospective teacher. 

Trenton 'principal emphasizes clear defining of TiormMl-school 
m^ethods. — This necessity of a more careful determination of specific 
values in normal-school courses of study was frequently referred to 
in letters to the authors from normal-school authorities. Thus, the 
principal of the State Normal School at Trenton, N. J., wrote as 
follows : 

I can see how a request sent to normal schools asking them to define the points 
in which their work differed from the usual academic work — in other words, 
asking them to define their methods — would be of very great interest. I think 
the general mind is miiddled concerning what is peculiarly normal. 

Oshkosh principal emphasizes differentiated departmental courses. — 
Along the line of more careful determination of the specific values of 
normal-school courses and differentiation accordingly, the principal of 
the State Normal School at Oshkosh, Wis., wrote as follows: 

I consider it quite essential to find out, first, the extent to which the course 
of study is adapted to the prospective needs of different groups of teachers ; 
that is, the amount of real differentiation there is in it — does everybody have 
the same geography or is the geography differentiated? — because the extent of 
this differentiation is a measure of the extent to which serviceable subject matter 
and most highly serviceable methods are taught. 

History of development of differentiated courses in Wisconsin. — • 
The historical development of the point of view which emphasizes 
specific professional training in the normal-school courses of study, 
instead of general high-school or collegiate training, is summarized 



82 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

for the State of Wisconsin in the f olloAving quotation from the bulletin 
published by the board of regents of the normal schools of that State 
(March, 1915). This number of the bulletin is devoted to the or- 
ganization of differentiated courses in the normal schools. The his- 
torical change from short review courses to general cultural courses, 
and later to the vocational-professional courses, is described by Sec- 
retary Jvittle in the following words : 

THBEE TYPES OF NOBMAL SCHOOLS. 

1. The early normal schools, from 1866 to 1895, offered what were called re- 
views or general reviews. They gave 5-week courses, 6-week courses, and 
10-week courses in the common branches — arithmetic, geography, history, and 
grammar. They organized and formulated these into a body of common knowl- 
edge. 

In this policy, psychology' and pedagog>' played a most important part. The 
leading man in these two subjects was called the institute conductor. It was 
his work to organize the subject matter of the general reviews and to formulate 
the principles of teaching, and then to extend such work into the county insti- 
tutes. These reviews and the pedagogy then appeared in the classroom work of 
the public schools and in the county superintendents' examinations for teachers. 
Hence the early normal school centered in reviews and pedagogy and psychology 
on a practical basis. 

2. Some time prior to 1900 a new movement began in the normal schools of "Wis- 
consin. An increasing number of teachers, direct or nearly direct, from the 
colleges and universities began to be employed in the normal schools. Most of 
these were well qualified to offer broad general courses in their chosen subjects, 
like the courses in the very best high schools. Many were well qualified and 
wished to offer intensive courses like those given in a college or a university. 
These teachers brought scholarship and breadth of view in the normal schools. 
But they transformed the normal school more and more into a high school with 
some college work. The colleges and universities in the decade from 1900 to 
1910 have served as huge magnets to deflect the normal school from its own 
special field of service. Under these combined influences the normal school be- 
came partly the old-time normal school, partly the modern high school, and 
partly the college or university. 

3. The new type of normal school is emerging. It is based on the principle 
that the normal school is a vocational school ; that it is the best instrument for 
training kindergarten teachers, primary teachers, and grammar-grade teachers ; 
that it may be used to train certain high-school teachers and special teachers; 
that its course of study and classroom instruction should be differentiated for 
special lines of service. 

Desire for college credit should not eliminate valuable courses. — 
One of the factors that interfere with normal-school courses being 
limited to instruction that is specifically helpful to prospective 
teachers of certain grades is the desire to secure college or university 
credit elsewhere for all of the work that a student has taken in the 
normal school. Since universities may hesitate to give credit for 
such courses as " handwork for the primary grades," or, " arithmetic 
for the upper grades," normal-school students who are ambitious for 
college credits may neglect to take these courses, although they may be 
important in their future teaching. In Wisconsin, Avhere academic 



COURSES OF STUDY FOB HIGH-SCHOOL GRADUATES. 83 

junior college courses have been organized in the normal schools, this 
danger is appreciated and is commented upon in the following quota- 
tion from the 1914^15 catalogue of the Milwaukee State Normal 
School : 

All the courses in the normal school (with the exception of the college course 
and certain courses in the school of fine and applied arts) are designed to fit 
teachers for the schools of Wisconsin. The school is essentially a vocational 
.school. The studies in the normal courses are selected for the value they are 
believed to have for prospective teachers, rather than for their quality of pleas- 
ing students or enabling the students at some futui-e time to obtain credit at 
college for them. Incidentally, the work done at the normal school may, most, 
if not all of it, be made to count on a future college course for those students, 
and it is hoped there may be many who wish to continue their studies ; but it is 
believed that normal students are serious-minded young people who know the 
purpose of a normal course and are willing to do what will best fit them for the 
work they propose to undertake. 

Departmental courses differentiated for primary grades and upper 
grades.— When one compares the differentiated courses of study for 
primary teachers and upper-grade teachers, it may be found that 
they are very much alike in the general statement of the amount 
of work required in each department, but that the departmental 
courses are differentiated for the teachers of different grades. The 
latter differentiation is well illustrated in the catalogue of the Platte- 
ville (Wis.) State Normal School for 1914-15. For example, in 
the English department appears " Juvenile literature required of 
all who are preparing to teach in the primary grades," and "Ameri- 
can literature required of all students who are preparing to teach 
in the upper grades." Another course is " Geography for lower-grade 
teachers," and " Geography for upper-grade teachers " ; there are also 
similarly differentiated courses in history, manual arts, mathematics, 
psychology, and education. 

Electives should be restricted to courses specifically preparatory 
to grade of teaching elected. — If it is true that two years beyond 
high-school graduation is a short time in which to train a prospec- 
tive primary teacher well, and three years is probably necessary for 
training an upper-grade teacher, as postulated earlier in this chap- 
ter, the question arises whether any electives should be permitted in 
such courses. It is quite obvious that the question at issue concern- 
ing electives in such highly differentiated and specifically vocational 
courses as those described above is quite different from the question 
at issue in the organization of general courses of study in high 
schools and colleges. Confusion of these two types of situations 
has often led to the allowing of a considerable range of election in 
normal-school courses where there is no good reason to justify it. 
In general, when a student is specifically preparing himself for 
teaching in certain grades of the elementary schools, and is per- 
mitted to elect some of his courses, the following restrictions should 



84 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

prevail: It should be assured (1) that he is neglecting no phase of 
the elementary-school course of study for which he needs training; 
(2) that all of the courses which he elects do give specific training 
for the grade of teaching that he expects to undertake; (3) that 
his elections have the approval of a competent faculty adviser who 
is free from departmental prejudices and bias. 

Lack of common units makes statistical statements unreliable. — 
It was originally intended in this chapter to make a strong feature of 
a statistical table showing the percentages of the time devoted to the 
various subjects in the general two-year courses for high-school grad- 
uates in a large number of normal schools. Upon a careful study of 
normal-school catalogues, however, it became evident that an extensive 
and reliable study of this sort would be difficult to make from the 
available data. In the first place, some normal schools print no tabu- 
lated statement of their requirements for graduation. Others print a 
statement of the number of hours per week, but do not distinguish be- 
tween laboratory or shop work on the one hand and " prepared " work 
on the other. In some such cases, if the item " Drawing * * * 3 
hours," appears, it may mean any one of the following: {a) Three 
hours of studio work with outside preparation; or {Ij) three hours of 
studio work with no outside preparation; or (c) three double periods 
of studio work with outside preparation; or {d) three double periods 
of studio work with no outside preparation. 

In some cases the catalogues state the requirements for graduation 
in terms of "units" or "credits." In such instances a reader may 
feel reasonably sure that the recitation and laboratory or shop hours 
have been reduced to a common basis for credit. 

The point under discussion is especially important in connection 
with the requirements in the fine and industrial arts and in music. 
The large variation shown in the percentages of such work required 
in different institutions and printed in the table on page 85 is prob- 
ably due to the fact that in many of the higher cases the time hours 
were not reduced to credit hours in preparing the statements pub- 
lished in the catalogues, and in the lower cases they were. Hence, 
the calculations are probably reliable only in cases where the cata- 
logues give the requirements in terms of units or credits, as at Ypsi- 
lanti, Mich., and Terre Haute, Ind. 

A suggestive table of time distributions is provided. — After con- 
siderable unsuccessful endeavor to secure extensive, reliable calcu- 
lations in spite of the difficulties mentioned above, it was decided to 
attempt such calculations in the cases of only a few schools and to 
submit the results as a sample of what is possible under present 
conditions. These results are shown in the tables on page 85. The 
experience in making them suggests the desirability of each State 
normal school formulating its units of credit and requirements for 



COURSES OF STUDY FOR HIGH-SCHOOL GRADUATES. 



85 



graduation in well-defined, unequivocal terms, such as the high- 
school unit, or the quarterly credit hour, or the semester credit hour. 

Percentages of graduation requirements from the ttvo-yeor courses for high- 
school graduates in certain State normal schools. 









Based 


on gross data showTi in 


table.) 












i 




i-j 


o 


1 






OS 








"a 


(B 


3 


Subjects. 


"3 

V 


1 
s 


1 


J3 

1 

o 

2 


£ 


■a 


1 

p. 


w 
a 

O 

1 




03 


o 

§ 

CO 


a 

s 
1 


.1^ 




^ 


B 


^; 


o 


H 


fi 


i^ 


a 


w 


w 


w 


w 


Education 


10 


14 


15 


22 


16 


16 


17 


29 


34 


19 


12 


28 


22 


Practice 


10 


27 


26 


14 


8 


15 


8 


15 


13 


6 


23 


4 


12 


History 


6 


4 


5 


6 


8 


6 


4 


8 


2 





g 





8 
3 
17 


Geography 


5 
10 


5 
14 


5 
13 


6 
14 


8 
20 


3 
14 


4 
13 


4 


3 
6 



6 


5 
10 



10 


English 


Science 


11 


5 


12 


5 


8 


13 


4 


13 





13 


11 





9 


Mathematics 


6 


5 


5 


6 


8 


11 


4 


U 


4 


13 


5 





6 


Unilistributed spe- 




























cial methods 


9 




















4 











4 





Manual and fine arts. 


16 


16 


U 


3 


12 


5 


8 


6 


5 


19 


8 





10 


Music 


7 
4 


5 
5 


3 

5 



3 


4 

4 


5 
5 






3 



5 




3 


4 

8 


2 



g 


Physical education . . 


6 


Electives 











20 


4 


S 


38 





29 


19 


1 


52 








Requirements for graduation {percentages) from the ttvo-year courses for high- 
school graduates in certain State normal schools. 
[Gross data as derived from catalogues reduced to percentages in table.] 



Subjects. 


i 

"3 







n 




.2« 

S -:, 

c 



.c 

^ c 




t:; 

oT 
i 

w 

OJ 

a 


Q 


J3 

ft 


t» 

a 


•5 

03 


to 

.s 

p. 




i 

w 



fa 


"a 
0" 

Q 
g 



1 


C8 

1 
1 


Education, total percentages 


14 


16 


17.5 


14 


4 


21 


4 


38 


41 


12 


10 


34 


35 






Distribution: 
Psychology 


6 


5 


8 


3 


2 


12 


2 


5 


10 






8 




Pedagogy 








History of education 


4 


5 
2 


5 
2 


3 


1 


9 


10 
5 
3 


5 

5 








9 


Schoolnianagement 






4 
4 


5 


Child study 


4 














5 


Principles "of teaching 




2.5 


3 








10 

8 


.... 


3 


5 


Principles of education 














3 


Educational psj-chology 
















5 

5 




4 


5 
5 
8 


8 


General method 






















Administ.rfit.inn a"d org^inizatini 








3 










3 




Logic 




4 


















Ethics 














5 


3 










Educational sociology 








2 
9 
















Practice, etc., total percentages 


23 


30 


30 


2 


20 


2 


20 


15 


4 


19 


5 


19 






Distribution: 
Teaching 


23 




28.5 
1.5 


6 
3 


2 


20 


2 


20 


15 




15 




16 


Obseryation 




Conferences 


















4 


"5' 


3 


Obsers- ation and practice 


30 
4 






























nr 







7 




History and social sciences, total percentages. 


8 


5.5 


4 


2 


8 


10 


2 


13 



> Periods per week per term. 
2 Periods per week per semester. 

8 Requires some additional work in rhetoricals and essays, time not specified. 

* Computed for course for teachers in upper grades, as giyen on page 53 of the normal-school bulletin 
issued by the State department of public instruction, 
s Unit of credit based on completion of term's work in subject. 

5 Requires additional work in school management from students expecting to become principals. 
' Additional requirements in music, penmanship, and physical training, time not specified. 
" A requirement in physical culture, time not specified. 
' Computed for course for teachers in upper grades. 
1" Education (page 24 of catalogue) is assumed to include 4 hours of required practice (page 30). 



86 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



Requirements for graduation {percentages) from the two-year courses for high- 
school graduates in certain State normal schools — Continued. 



Subjects. 


i 

<a 


s 

n 


i 
1 

'A 


0.i5 

8 

o 


1 
M 


■a 

M 


o 

ft 


i 


03 

fi 

2" 

bn 

.g 
ft 


i 

W 

o 


■i 

o 
o" 

5 


1 


OS 

> 

c 

o 

.a 
W 


Distribution: 


4 
4 


4 


5.5 


4 


2 


8 


1 








3 





5 












Contemporary history 




















3 






















1 


2 








Civics 






















3 


















4 
5 






1 




fi 




















































7 
14 


5 
15 


6 
14.5 


4 
9 


2 

5^ 


4 

18 


1 

3 


5 
9 


3 

7 


4 


4 

8 


12 


5 




?fi 






Distribution: 




}^ 


f 3.5 
\3 


2 


2 


6 


1 


5 


{' 








6 


Spelling 
















7 
.... 


2 
1 


4 
4 


1 
1 


5 






4 




Composition 


3 


5 


.5 








Language 












in 




5 


5 


1 




4 














in 


Rhetoric 
















8 






6 




2.5 
















4 
4 




Undistributed 
















































16 


5 


13.5 


3 


2 


17 


1 


17 




8 


9 




14 






Distribution: 
Nature and elementary science 


12 


5 


1.5 
2 
2 
5 










5 
3 






2 
4 




q 




}7 


2 
f 




1 






5 








/ 






Biology 






{- 


12 
5 




\ 




3 






Physics 














Chemistry 


4 
























Applied science 




3 


















































9 


6 


5.5 


4 


2 


14 


1 


14 


5 


8 


4 




10 






Distribution: 


9 


}« 


f 5.5 


4 


2 


4 
5 
5 


1 


5 


5 





4 




in 






Geometry 












4 
5 




























































Undistributed: 
Special methods, total percentages 


12 














5 








5 






___ 





















Manual and fine arts, total percentages 


22 


18 


12.5 


2 


3 


6 


2 


8 


6 


12 


7 


.... 


15 


Distribution: 


12 


8 
2 
8 


2 
2.5 

8 


2 


1 
1 


6 


2 


3 
2 
3 


6 





5 





r, 


Penmanship 






6 


/ 








2 




ft 


Domestic science 


1 












4 
























Art appreciation 
























3 






























Music, total percentages 


10 
6 



6 
6 



4 
6 




2 
13 


1 

1 
1 


6 
6 
10 




9 


4 




6 



35 



2 
12 


3 
7 
6 


2 



62 


q 


Electives, total percentages 


10 







Total requirements, percentages 


141 


111 


115 


64 


26 


130 


24 


130 


120 


62 


84 


120 


156 



Chapter X. 
THE ORGANIZATION OF PRACTICE TEACHING. 



Further discussion of practice teaching facilities. — As intimated a 
number of times in this bulletin, the organization of practice teach- 
ing probably constitutes the most important single phase of the 
actual training of teachers by normal schools. In view of the 
importance of the work, Chapter V was entirely devoted to the 
discussion of the facilities for practice teaching in any given com- 
munity as a factor in determining and limiting the extent to which 
a normal school established there could serve the State by training 
teachers. This involved an elaborate analysis of the amount of 
practice teaching to be required, the conditions under which it should 
be carried on, and standards for measuring the amount which a 
given number of children might afford. The essential points were 
(1) that a large part of the practice teaching should be done under 
regular school conditions and (2) that every prospective teacher 
should do from a minimum of 100 hours to a maximum of 90 half 
days of actual teaching. Again, in the chapter on normal-school 
faculties, the number and salaries of the critic teachers were discussed 
with emphasis on the very great importance of the latter in really 
improving the efficiency of prospective teachers. 

Four factors to be considered in this chapter. — The present chapter 
will take up a consideration of the actual organization and conduct 
of practice teaching. The most important factors in this organi- 
zation are (1) the director of the training school and his staff of 
critic teachers, (2) the detailed printed course of study of the train- 
ing school, (3) the practical and differentiated character of the dcr 
partmental courses in the normal school in relation to the course of 
study of the training school, and (4) a carefully standardized routine 
(described in mimeographed or printed form) for guiding the ad- 
ministration of the practice teaching. 

1. THE DIRECTOR AND STAFF OF THE TRAINING SCHOOLS. 

Director should be a master of elementary- and normal-school 
problems. — The director of the training school is the most important 
officer in a normal school excepting the president. He should possess 

87 



88 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

many of the same qualifications as were described for the president 
on page 42. He should be thoroughly informed concerning all phases 
of elementary school work — ^that is, he should be able to make a good 
detailed course of study for all subjects in all grades and should have 
good critical judgment in the choice of methods. He should have 
broad training in education and be qualified to teach most of the 
courses in the department of education. He should have unusual ad- 
ministrative ability, including both force and tact, in order that he 
might ably assist the president in securing efficient cooperation by 
all members of the faculty in training prospective teachers for the 
real concrete detailed tasks which they will undertake when they 
begin to teach. 

Director should have full charge of training school and depart- 
ment of education. — If he is such a competent person as here de- 
scribed, he should be given full charge of the training school and of 
the department of education (including psychology), subject only to 
supervision by the president. In view of the importance of his posi- 
tion, if he is thoroughly competent every effort should be made to 
keep him for many years of service. 

Director''s salary should he larger than any other instructor'' s.^— 
Hence his salary may justly be 50 per cent larger than that of any 
other instructor in the faculty, since the loss of a competent depart- 
mental teacher is not one-tenth as serious in the continuous efficient 
conduct of the training of teachers in the normal school as the loss of 
a competent director of the training school. In the chapter on salaries 
we noted one example of the recognition of the superior value and 
services of such a director of the training department, namely, in the 
State normal school at De Kalb, 111., where his salary was $4,500, 
compared with $5,000 for the president, $3,450 for the professor of 
pedagogy, and $2,530 for most heads of departments. The undoubted 
superiority of the organization of the practice situation at De Kalb 
certainly justifies this large salary. Some of the details of this or- 
ganization will be discussed in later sections of this chapter. 

Competent critics needed; each should supervise only eight prac- 
tice teachers at one time. — The importance of the immediate assist- 
ants of the director of the training department, namely, the critic 
teachers, was emphasized on page 73 and the number needed in a 
typical faculty was discussed on page 69. It was estimated that 
under the best conditions for the children one critic teacher could 
supervise only 12 graduates a year if these did all of their teaching 
(100 hours) under one critic (see pages 68 to 73). This would mean 
4 practice teachers a term for each critic. If each practice teacher 
taught only half of her 100 hours under one critic (5 hours a week 
for 10 weeks) and did the remainder under another critic, each critic 



THE OEGANIZATION OF PEACTICE TEACHING. 89 

could supervise during 1 week 4 practice teachers for each of the 2 
groups of 20 pupils under her charge, making a total of 8 practice 
teachers per critic teacher. In normal schools, where the importance 
of practice teaching is recognized, critic teachers are not assigned 
more than 8 practice teachers at one time and in some places not more 
than 4. On the other hand, printed reports of some schools show as 
many as 15 to 20 practice teachers under the direction of 1 critic 
teacher at one time, and oral reports are occasionally given of critic 
teachers having charge of 25 to 30 practice teachers at one time. 
Obviously this is absurd, when one takes into consideration the 
needs of the children and of the practice teachers and the available 
energy of a critic teacher. The teaching of the children under these 
conditions must be far inferior to that in the best public schools and 
the supervision far inferior to that which a beginning teacher would 
receive under a good building principal in a good public-school 
system. 

Competent supervision and criticism require unusual skill. — The 
greatest art in teaching is the skilled supervision of teaching. Hence 
competent critic teachers must be unusually well-qualified persons. 
They must be good teachers themselves, must be able to analyze teach- 
ing so as to describe it and discuss it with practice teachers, and must 
be able to direct young teachers under conditions of unusual nervous 
strain which call for the exercise of great tact and discretion. 

Needless to say, the personal factor is such a large element in the 
matters discussed in this section of the chapter that examples from 
normal schools must be omitted. In the next section, on course of 
study, however, matters are so objective that examples can be safely 
given. 

2. CX)TJRSE OF STUDY OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL. 

Good printed course more necessary even than in city schools. — 
The second factor in determining the efficiency of the practice .teach- 
ing in a normal school is the existence of a detailed printed course of 
study of the training school. The importance of such a course of 
study in improving the efficiency of State and city school systems is 
generally recognized. In such systems the teachings of a single 
group of children in the regular subjects is usually done by one 
f cache?' for a year. If a detailed printed course of study is important 
in such cases, it is obviously of much greater importance in a training 
school where a single group of children may have anywhere from 4 
to 50 different teachers in the regular subjects dunng a year. Apart 
from the efficiency of the training of the practice teachers, the welfare 
of the children demands some such definite guide for practice. 

Welfare of the children emphasized in New Hampshire training 
schools. — This phase of the subject is well presented in the report of 



90 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

State Supt. Morrison, of New Hampshire, for 1911-12 (p. 153). In 
discussing the model and practice schools at the Plymouth and Keene 
State Normal Schools he says : 

It should be understood that the State has an obligation to the people of 
Plymouth and Keene in connection with these schools which ought to be observed 
to the utmost. The normal schools proper are the State's own affair, but the 
school districts of Plymouth and Keene entrust their children to the agents of 
the State in order that the State may train teachers for service all over the 
State. 

In the last report of this office the criticism was made that while the schooling 
which the children received tended to make them mentally alert, it left them far 
from capable in any of the specific arts of the schoolroom. No course of study 
was followed and nobody could tell at any given time whether the schools 
were making good their expectations or not. 

In connection with tlie reorganization which the trustees adopted, it was 
aimed to correct this defect. The model and practice schools, viewed simply 
as public schools, are in better condition to-day than at any time in recent years, 
at least so far as the arts fundamental to all education are concerned. They 
will average well with the best class of schools of the State, but they can not be 
said to be the best of their class. 

State or city course of study should be followed. — The course of 
study adopted by the trustees of the New Hampshire normal schools 
was the State course of study, and it was made the basis of the work 
not only in the model and practice schools, but also in the normal 
departmental classes. It is clear that this is a desirable basis for 
procedure in States where there is an efficient central State depart- 
ment of education and a well-standardized course of study. The 
next best step in adopting a standard course of study for a training 
school is to follow the main outlines of the course in operation in the 
city in which the normal school is located, if the city schools are to 
be used at all for practice teaching purposes, as is necessary in most 
places. Such modifications as are necessary can be made by the 
director of training. 

Close coordination with city schools at De KaTb^ III. — Perhaps the 
best example of the practice just described is the course of study for 
the training department of the State normal school at De Kalb, 111. 
This was prepared under the direction of C. A. McMurry, director 
of the training department there until 1915, who is largely responsi- 
ble for making this one of the best training departments in the coun- 
try. The relation of the course of study to the city schools, as well 
as certain other important aspects of the training situation at De 
Kalb, are brought out in the following quotation from the introduc- 
tory statement by Prof. McMurry (p. 3 of Course of Study) : 

The training department of the Northern Illinois State Normal School is pro- 
vided for in two houses, one a complete and well-equipped building on the 
campus and the other the Glidden School, on South First Street, in De Kalb. 
Each of these schools serves as a regular ward school for the city and has the 



THE ORGANIZATION OF PRACTICE TEACHING. 91 

same supervision as the otlier ward scliools of the city. About 600 children are 
provided for in these schools. 

As a rule every regular schoolroom is provided with a critic, who closely 
directs and supervises the work of the student teachers who instruct the chil- 
dren in her room. The principals of buildings, besides the duties of general 
management, reinforce this careful supervision of class instruction. The lessons 
are so carefully planned and organized beforehand that student teachers are 
generally able to find their way quiclvly into effective teaching. 

Two terms of teaching, on half-day time, are the regular requirements for 
student teachers before graduation. Room charge, or the general management 
of all classes in a room, is required for one of these terms. Each student in 
training is required also to attend " critique lessons," that is, illustrative exer- 
cises with regular classes given by the room critics or by other experienced 
teachers. Later these lessons are fully discussed by students and critics. 

The heads of departments and other regular teachers in the normal school 
participate freely in the training-school work, either by advice or direction of 
students in special departments, such as music, drawing, manual arts, litera- 
ture, history, nature study, arithmetic, etc., and also by presenting and dis- 
cussing critique lessons. 

The following course of study has been carefully worked out by the superin- 
tendent and teachers, aided by the normal-school instructors in their special 
departments. Many of the more important topics or units of study have been 
elaborately worked out and the material thus brought into shape has been re- 
duced to printed or typewritten form for the ready use of teachers in all the 
schools of the city. The same course of study is followed in all the schools of 
De Kalb, and the training schools thus approximate closely, in material and 
methods, the usual work of schools. 

The De Kalh course of study. — The De Kalb course of study is a 
pamphlet of 83 pages and consists of very brief concise statements 
concerning the general character of the work in each subject, followed 
by detailed descriptions of the topics taken up in each grade. The 
outlines of some of the more unorganized or newer subjects, such as 
nature study, are especially full and detailed. 

Ready-made outlines assist fractice teacher to concentrate on 
technique of teaching. — The second sentence in the last paragraph 
quoted above described one unique phase of the work at De Kalb 
which is especially valuable, namely, the accumulation of outlines, 
references, illustrative and other materials thai the practice teacher 
can make ready use of in getting her subject matter in shape for 
teaching. The assumption at the basis of this plan is that the prac- 
tice teacher should be in a position to concentrate most of her time, 
energy, and attention on the technique of teaching. The practice- 
teaching period of a student's education is certainly not the time when 
she should be mastering the subject that she is to teach. This should 
be definitely provided for in the departmental courses which should 
precede the assignment to teaching. 

The general plan of organizing the material of practice-teaching 
units referred to above was described at length by Prof. McMurry in 
a paper read at the meeting of the normal school section of the 



92 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

National Education Association in Cincinnati in 1915 and which is 
printed in the proceedings of the association. 

Sample courses of study of training schools. — ^Among other courses 
of study for training schools are those from the State normal schools 
at Salem, Mass., Harrisonburg, Va. (1912), Carbondale, 111. (1914), 
Winona, Minn. (1909),Warrensburg,Mo. (1910), Normal, 111. (1912), 
and Chico, Cal. (1914). 

Winona course of study prepares for real Minnesota conditions. — 
The course of study from Winona, Minn., was published in 1909 as 
a revision of earlier editions of 1903 and 1907. The endeavor to re- 
late the course of study to real school conditions in Minnesota is 
expressed in the following quotation from the preface (p. 4) : 

la assisting to modernize the course of study for elementary schools we realize 
that a normal school must not go too far from the commonly accepted course of 
study, lest student teachers be handicapped by being tlirown into situations too 
strange, when, after graduation, they begin their independent teaching. Conse- 
quently, this course of study is not so much an expression of what we might like 
to do as it is a statement of what seems practicable in the schools of Minnesota. 
That is to say, we try to have in our elementary school for the observation of our 
student teachers, not a course that is theoretically ideal (if there could be such), 
but one that is usable in any graded school in the State. 

Chico {Cal.) course of study. — In the foreword of the Chico (Cal.) 
course of study (1914) it is stated that this is the first printed course 
of study that the training school as such has had, and that its pur- 
pose is to serve as a suggestive working manual for the use of super- 
visors and student teachers and to develop more coordination and 
correlation between the normal school and the training school. 

Detailed courses of study for geography at Chico. — Other signifi- 
cant publications from Chico are two bulletins dealing with the teach- 
ing of geogi:aphy, by C. K. Studley, supervisor of geography. The 
first has two parts entitled "Map Geography and Journey Geog- 
raphy for Beginners." The second bulletin is entitled " Geography 
for the Fifth and Sixth Grades." These were published in 1912 and 
1913 and include about 150 pages of detailed directions and outlines 
for teaching geography. In the preface it is stated that these courses 
of study are all the outgrowth of the work in the elementary depart- 
ment of the Chico State Normal School and are intended to serve 
as a labor-saving device for teachers. 

The last sentence suggests the main issue in this section of the 
chapter, namely, the development of very definite detailed courses of 
study as the second important factor in the effective and economical 
administration of practice teaching. 

3. PRACTICAL DIPFERENTIATED DEPARTMENTAL COURSES. 

Differentiated departmental courses should prepare directly 
for practice teaching. — The third factor in developing an effective 



THE ORGANIZATION OF PRACTICE TEACHING. 93 

practice teaching situation is the organization of practical and dif- 
ferentiated departmental courses which are focused directly on the 
subject matter and methods of the part of the elementary school in 
which the prospective teacher expects to teach. The general im- 
portance of giving this type of instruction was emphasized in the 
preceding chapter on course of study. Its relation to the practice 
teaching is even more obvious and important. There may be some 
chance that the student who has been given a certain type of course 
in primary geography will not have an opportunity to teach such 
work in the school system in which she is employed ; but if the normal- 
school courses and the training-school courses are correlated, as they 
should be, the practice work in geography would certainly be along 
the same lines as the normal-school courses in geography. 

Correlation may he secured hy having instructors teach in hoth 
schools. — The simplest administrative method of securing this corre- 
lation is to require instructors to teach in both places, namely, in the 
normal school and in the training school. This arrangement is not 
uncommon in the normal schools of the North Atlantic States. For 
example, in the catalogue of the Salem (Mass.) State Normal School, 
Me find the following paragraph in a discussion of the training 
schools (p. 16) : 

In planning the instruction in these schools the aim is to connect it as closely 
as possible with the work in the normal school, to the end that the methods of 
teaching here may exemplify the theory which the normal-school students are 
taught. In the training school a large part of the instruction is either super- 
vised or actually given by normal-school instructors, and instruction in the 
normal school is largely based on directed observation in the training department 
in particular subjects as well as in the theory of education. 

President should insist on correlation of work of normal and train- 
ing schools. — In general, it is the task of the president of the normal 
school to make sure that the course of study of the training school 
does correspond roughly to average courees of study of the district 
that the normal school serves, and to make equally sure that all 
normal-school courses prepare definitely and thoroughly for the 
successful teaching of this course of study. 

Normal-school instructor must patiently master details of his 
subject. — The greatest difficulty is found in the fact that so many 
normal-school instructors feel that they are too big for the detailed 
work required in such a scheme. As a matter of fact, the positions 
are too big for the instructors. Definitely and thoroughly to organize 
the material of any elementary-school subject is a big achievement. 
But it is a big achievement that requires patient mastery of many 
details. Hence, a normal-school instructor who is not energetic and 
persistent is likely to spend his time telling how it should be done, 
instead of organizing materials so as to help teachers to do it. 



94 STANDAKDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



i 



Possibilities in normal-school positions illustrated by achieve- 
ments of Charles McMurry. — The possibilities of a normal-school 
instructor achieving big results by careful, persistent detailed work 
are well illustrated in the many practical publications of the former 
director of the training school at De Kalb, 111., namely. Prof. Charles 
McMurry, who has done more in formulating the material of instruc- 
tion in several subjects than most departmental normal-school instruc- 
tors have done in their own special subjects. 

If the departmental courses give students a body of organized mate- 
rial and methods which are of practical value, the third factor in the 
effective organization of practice teaching will be provided for. 

4. STANDARDIZED ROUTINE FOR ASSIGNMENTS AND SUPERVISION. 

Saves time and confusion in a complicated social situation. — The 
fourth factor in the effective conduct of practice teaching is the 
organization of a standardized routine for assignments, preparation 
of material, supervision, and reports. This routine should be con- 
cisely described in a mimeographed or printed handbook for practice 
teaching. A practice-teaching organization is a very complicated 
social situation into which new members are being introduced con- 
stantly. In order to save confusion and to economize time, if for no 
other reasons, such a handbook should be proAdded. It saves much 
reiteration of directions orally and eliminates many possibilities of 
misunderstanding. It is of great help not only to new practice 
teachers, but also to new critic teachers. 

Content and value of handbook for practice teaching. — Such a 
handbook should contain the fundamental regulations governing 
practice teaching, information concerning the routine of the elemen- 
tary school, directions for lesson plans, and a concise formulation of 
the fundamental j)oints in the technique of teaching to which practice 
teachers and critic teachers should give attention. Such an outline 
of the points in technique is especially helpful to new critic teachers, 
who are often at great loss to know how to analyze and discuss with 
practice teachers the teaching which the latter do. 

Best handhooTc published hy McMurry. — Again in this field we 
find the best production to be one from the De Kalb Normal School, 
namely, the Handbook of Practice for Teachers, by Charles McMurry, 
published in 1914. (The Macmillan Co.) In view of the fact that 
anyone can easily purchase this book, it need not be described. 
Other handbooks for practice teaching are published by the State 
normal schools at Platteville, Wis. (1901 and 1907) ; Peru, Nebr. 
(1905 and 1909) ; and Chadron, Nebr. (1913). 

Progressive reforms need efficient management to succeed. — In 
general, normal-school instructors are likely to be carried away with 



THE ORGANIZATION OF PRACTICE TEACHING. 95 

enthusiasm for progressive reforms in education which they have 
vaguely conceived, and fail to realize that the success of progressive 
reforms depends upon the efficiency with which reformers apply prin- 
ciples of business management in organizing and standardizing their 
instruction. A well-organized handbook describing such an organi- 
zation for practice teaching is the fourth factor in securing effective 
conduct of this most imi)ortant phase of normal-school work. 

Some descriptions of practice-teaching organizations. — In order 
to put the reader in touch with a few exanii)les of practice-teaching 
situations, this chapter will conclude with two quotations from typi- 
cal normal-school publications or reports. Attention is called to the 
examples already described in the chapter on practice-teaching facili- 
ties, namely, those in the normal schools at Mayville, N. Dak.; 
Plymouth and Keene, N. H.; De Kalb, 111.; and Providence, R. I. 
(p. 49). 

Practice teachinj at Charleston^ III. — The following quotations are 
from the 1913-14 catalogue of the State normal school at Charleston, 
111., which ranks high among American normal schools. It main- 
tains its own training school. The catalogue states that : 

At present the school has oi.trht critic teachers, one for grades 1 and 2, one 
for each of the other six grades, and a special teacher for the work in history 
(p. 16). 

The critic teachers do the greater part of the teaching, then, because it is 
believed that experience in teaciiing is valuable only when based on sound edu- 
cational principles, which are illustrated by a teacher of marked ability directing 
a well-trained class. Observation of the expert, followed by practice, and this 
again by observation should be the rule (p. 17). 

A considerable part of the teaching is done by the student teachers. All 
students graduating from the normal school are required in their senior year to 
take throughout the year a course in practice teaching. For this purpose the 
school year is divided into four quarters. Each quarter the list of student 
teachers is divided into as many groups as there are critic teachers, and one 
group Is assigned to each critic for the quarter. By the critic teacher the stu- 
dent is assigned to teach a particular subject in her grade. Each quarter the 
student is assigned to a different grade, usually two grades in advance of his 
previous assignment, and to a different subject, until the fourth quarter, when 
the student's preference for grad(> and subject is considered. 

In the beginning of the first quarter the student makes plans for teaching the 
lessons in his assigned subject after discussing the subject matter witli the critic 
teacher, but for about two weeks the teaching is done by the critic teacher, the 
student observing. Gradually the teaching is turned over to the student, the 
critic teacher observing, and discussing the lessons and lesson plans before and 
after the student teaches the lesson. Each critic teacher holds one general 
meeting each week with her group of students, besides special conferences witli 
individuals. She also does as much of the teaching throughout the quarter as 
seems to her necessary to keep the class up to standard and to furnish the stu- 
dent opportunity to observe expert teaching (pp. 34 ami 35). 

15607"— 16 7 



96 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

Practice teaching at Emporia, Kans. — The following quotation 
from a typewritten report kindly furnished by President Butcher, of I 
the State Normal School at Emporia, Kans., in the fall of 1914, shows 
how a scheme somewhat similar to that described above works in a 
large, well-organized normal school with a small training school, 
containing approximately 180 children, divided for practice-teaching 
purposes into 15 groups of about 12 pupils each. The report reads, 
in part, as follows : 

Student teachers. — Our group of student teachers this semester consists of the 
following numbers : Kindergarten, 5 ; primary, 26 ; first intermediate, 19 ; sec- 
ond intermediate, 22 ; grammar grades, 25 ; athletic coaching, 3 ; high school, 
15 ; a total of 115. Considering this work from primary to the grammar course, 
inclusive, we find that the number of groups of children permits only an average 
of 3^ hours per week of actual instruction for each student teacher. This stu- 
dent teaching continues for a period of 18 weeks, making thus an average of 63 
hours of actual instruction in the training school for the life certificate. This 
student teaching is supplemented by systematic observation under the direction 
of the critic teachers in certain types of work other than that taught by the stu- 
dent teacher. Except in the case of teachers of unusual skill the student teacher 
continues with the same teaching throughout his term of 18 weeks. Exception 
is made to this rule if for any reason inappropriate assignment of teaching has 
to be made at the beginning of the term. Of course, in the majority of cases 
this assignment for the 18 weeks comprises throughout the entire time more than 
one type of work. For example, teachers may be teaching drawing and arith- 
metic or physical training and language. 



Chapter XI. 
THE TRAINING OF RURAL TEACHERS. 



Two recent bulletins of the Bureau of Education devoted to this 
topic. — The training of teachers for rural schools constitutes an 
important part of the work of State normal schools in certain sections 
of the country where from 50 per cent to 75 per cent of the students in 
the normal school become rural teachers. In view of this fact it would 
be quite appropriate to devote a special chapter to a discussion of the 
courses of study for such teachers were it not for the fact that the 
Bureau of Education has issued recently two special bulletins which 
contain a thorough review and discussion of the whole problem of the 
training of rural teachers. These bulletins are No. 2 for 1913 and No, 
49 for 1914. The former is entitled "Training Courses for Kural 
Teachers," and was prepared by A. C. Monahan, of the Bureau of 
Education, and R. H. Wright, of the State Normal School at Green- 
ville, N. C. The second bulletin is entitled " Efficiency and Prepara- 
tion of Rural School Teachers," and was prepared by H. W. Foght, 
specialist in rural-school practice of the Bureau of Education. 

Some State normal schools intensely interested in training rural 
teachers. — The general interest manifested by the normal schools in 
the training of rural teachers is described in the following paragraph 
from page 36 of Mr. Foght's study : 

The normal schools shouUI, theoretically at least, be able to prepare teachers 
for all kinds of schools. Practically, however, they have not always been able 
to do so. The demand for trainetl teachers in the city and village schools has 
in most sections of the country been so great as to absorb all the energies of the 
schools, leaving little or no time to consider the neetls of rural communities. 
Certain geographical sections of the country, notably the North Atlantic division, 
have now little genuine agricultural life. Here, naturally enough, the normal 
schools do not devote much of their time to rural teachers. In such agricultural 
sections as the North Central and South Central divisions, on the other hand, 
rural teachers are in the majority. Now that educational ideals are undergoing 
great changes in these sections of the country, it is reasonable to expect that 
the normal schools will be prompt to respond to the new needs. These schools 
have always been ready to adapt themselves to prevailing conditions. In a 
sense they are so near to public thought all the time as to be " more nearly 
to-day an actual exponent of public sentiment than any other public institution 
of equivalent magnitude." The best evidence of this is that the normal schools 
situated in the agricultural sections of the country are at this time straining 
every energy to be of greatest assistance in rural-teacher preparation. 

97 



98 



STANDABDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



Normal-school efforts supplemented by teacher-training courses 
in high schools and county normal schools. — Obviously, the training 
of teachers for all of the rural schools of a given district of the State 
is entirely too large a problem for the normal school which serves this 
district. This fact has been keenly realized in recent years in a num- 
ber of States, and arrangements have been made to organize teacher- 
training courses in local high schools or county normal schools. A 
complete description of these courses is found in the bulletin by Mon- 
ahan and Wright, mentioned above, which also contains (on pp. 11 
to 35) a description and summary of the courses for rural teachers 
offered in the State normal schools. In the bulletin by Mr. Foght, 
the discussion of the work of State normal schools in this line is 
brought down to a later date. Owing to the ease with which these 
bulletins may be secured and the fact that they are now quite gen- 
erally known to persons interested in the training of rural teachers, 
no further discussion of the organization of such training by State 
normal schools will be provided in this bulletin. 



Chapter XII. 

TRAINING OF HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS AND CONFER- 
RING OF DEGREES. 



Constitutes a small part of the work of a few State normal 
schools. — The training of high-school teachers is a problem in which 
a few normal schools have manifested intense interest. For the most 
part, however, State normal schools are training relatively few high- 
school teachers as compared with the number of elementary teachers 
which they train. Hence a discussion of the present activities of 
normal schools in training high-school teachers is relatively unim- 
portant. 

Rapid increase of high schools may necessitate training of such 
teachers in normal schools. — The enormous increase in the number 
of high schools during the last two decades, however, makes the train- 
ing of teachers for them a very serious problem, and it is quite pos- 
sible that in some States the careful development of special facilities 
for training high-school teachers by the normal schools will be a part 
of the solution. The phrase "careful development of special facili- 
ties " in the last sentence should be emphasized, because the adequate 
training of high-school teachers by normal schools demands just as 
careful and thorough an organization of specialized, differentiated 
courses as was described for elementary teachers in the preceding 
chapter. 

Would necessitate new advanced academic and professional courses 
in normal schools, — Some normal-school authorities, in their enthusi- 
asm for additional students and additional courses, and without re- 
gard to efficient specific training and real per capita costs, maintain 
that the training of high-school teachers by normal schools would 
involve no additional expense to the State, since the normal schools 
already have organized the departments necessary to give such in- 
struction. This naive assumption overlooks entirely the necessity of 
organizing specific advanced courses in all high-school subjects, as 
well as specific professional courses in the historical, psychological, 
administrative, and methodological aspects of education. Unless 
such advanced academic courses are organized, the prospective high- 
school teachers will not be adequately trained in subject matter, and 
unless specific courses are organized in the history of secondary edu- 

99 



100 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

cation, in the psychology of high-school instruction, in methods of! 
teaching in high schools, and in high-school administration the time j 
spent in professional study by the prospective high-school teacher 
will be largely wasted as far as improving his efficiency as a high- 
school teacher is concerned. 

Academic high-school departments in normal schools tend to ex- 
pand. — Some of the State normal schools that seem to be the most 
concerned about becoming colleges for training high-school teachers 
have themselves barely graduated from the rank of high schools ; that 
is, approximately 50 per cent of their students are still of high-school 
rank. Moreover, some of the same schools have been least successful 
in developing the type of training courses for elementary teachers 
which are generally admitted to be of first importance, namely, care- 
fully differentiated courses with extensive provision for carefully 
supervised practice teaching. Probably the fact that they have been 
largely high schools, providing a large amount of purely academic 
instruction, explains the fact that they want to become colleges doing 
the same type of work. If they ceased to be high schools (as they 
must when local high schools develop), and became strictly effective 
normal schools for training elementary teachers, they would have to 
abolish their departments of Latin, German, chemistry, physics, and 
probably certain other departments. Obviously, the teachers in these 
departments, many of whom have been connected with the school 
for years (giving courses of high-school grade), do not desire to seek 
high-school positions elsewhere ; they would prefer to become college 
professors. Needless to say, the necessity of transferring these teach- 
ers to other positions in the State should not be permitted to interfere 
for a moment with the abolishing of their department if this process 
seemed best to unprejudiced expert central State authorities who werie 
making plans to have the State institutions serve the State most 
economically and effectively. 

Should investigate per capita costs before establishing new ad- 
vanced academic courses. — Moreover, in any State where the prob- 
lem of establishing in State normal schools new departments of foreign 
languages, advanced mathematics, physics, and chemistry was being 
considered, the central State authorities would do well to look into 
the probable registration and consequent per capita costs in such 
departments. 

The above argument is not intended to show that normal schools 
should not undertake the training of high-school teachers. To do so 
may be part of the best plan to supply the State with such teachers. 
It is merely intended to point out that it involves just as special an 
assumption of new, extra, specific tasks by the normal school as is in- 
volved in the establishing of new courses in any higher educational 
institution. 



HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS — DEGREES. 101 

Examples of discussions by State authorities of training high- 
school teachers. — In keeping with the discussion up to this point, 
reference will be made to three States in which the problem of train- 
ing high-school teachers is being given serious consideration, namely, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Minnesota, 

Massachusetts: Most high-school teachers are college graduates 
without professional training. — Massachusetts has been a leader in 
educational development generally, and has certainly taken high rank 
in the matter of training elementary teachers. It would not be pre- 
sumptuous to infer that it will do equally well eventually in providing 
professional training for high-school teachers. The whole problem 
is discussed at length by Commissioner Snedden in his report for 
1912-13 (pp. 36—41). A few quotations will present certain aspects 
of the situation. Concerning the present staflP of high-school teachers 
of the State he says (p. 37) : 

In the main, the high schools of the Commonwealth find their teachers among 
the graduates of the private and endowed colleges, of which there are nearly a 
score in the State. These graduates vary greatly as to the kind and degree of 
their professional preparation for the work of teaching. The fact that high 
schools now rarely employ as teachers persons not possessing an academic degree 
insures that these teachers have a fair general education. In perhaps a majority 
of cases they have had considerable college instruction in subjects closely related 
to those which they are expected to teach in the high schools. A minority of 
them have had, in addition, college courses in such subjects as the theory and 
practice of teaching, the history of education, educational psychology, and prin- 
ciples of method given by the departments of education which, within compara- 
tively recent years, have been established in various higher institutions of 
learning. 

It must, however, be said that, in spite of the equipment described above, almost 
all college graduates employed as teachers in high schools are, in relation to the 
work they are expected to do, deficient in professional training. Even though 
they have had courses in the subjects which they intend to teach, and also some 
theoretical courses in education, they necessarily approach their work as learn- 
ers, as apprentices, to whom practical means and methods of effectively teaching 
boys and girls are as yet almost wholly unknown. 

Continue to rely on colleges for high-school teachers. — Concern- 
ing the desirability of the State organizing special facilities for 
training secondary teachers, Mr. Snedden says (p. 39) : 

In Massachusetts, however, it seems inexpedient for the State to enter upon 
such work until existing institutions shall have had full opportunity to demon- 
strate their capacity to deal with this problem. They have heretofore trainetl 
substantially all such teachers, and have met the demands of the State and 
local communities in so far as these have been expressed in law or through 
such formal requirements as certification standards. 

Stimulate professioTial training hy certif cation requirements. — 
In order to make sure that graduates of existing institutions shall 
have adequate professional training, Mr. Snedden recommends the 
development of a scheme of certification of teachers which will 



102 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



1 



necessitate the organization of adequate professional courses in these 
institutions. 

8upt. Morrison would not train high-school teachers in Twrmal 
schools. — The general issues discussed earlier in this chapter are 
clearly expressed by State Supt. Morrison, of New Hampshire, in 
connection with the problem of training high-school teachers for that 
State. In his report for 1913-14 he writes as follows (p. 163) : 

The question will perhaps naturally suggest itself, Why not train high- 
school teachers in the State normal schools? There are several good reasons 
why this is not practicable. 

In the first place, the normal schools have enough and more than enough to 
do in the training of teachers for the elementry schools. 

Secondly, teachers in the secondary schools need four years of academic 
as well as professional preparation, and they need the ripening process which 
comes out of four years of study. The normal-school program calls for two 
years of strictly professional training. To provide for the academic training 
of high-school teachers would necessitate the duplication of every existing 
normal school faculty with an academic faculty. 

Finally, even were this done, the normal schools thus enlarged could not hope 
to offer the general advantages of the larger institutions, and the result would 
necessarily be an inadequate enrollment of inferior material. 

Minnesota: Cooperation of State authorities postponed training 
of high-school teachers in normal schools. — In Minnesota we find an 
excellent example of the various educational forces of the State 
working together on the problem of giving degree courses in the 
normal schools as well as the matter of training high-school teachers. 
The State Normal School Board of Minnesota, of which the State 
superintendent is ex officio president, seems to cooperate with the 
presidents of the several State normal schools so as to develop effi- 
ciently the general normal-school situation. Moreover, the present 
president of the State university is an unusually broad-minded effi- 
cient educational and administrative expert. This situation makes 
it almost certain that any development in the training of teachers 
will be for the best interests of the State. 

Attitude of the president of the Winona State Norrnal School. — As 
regards the training of high-school teachers, President Maxwell, of 
the State normal school at Winona, states that the Minnesota normal 
schools have no ambitions in this direction. The following para- 
graphs, quoted from his report for 1910-12, contain his statement 
(p. 105) : 

There is no ambition on the part of the Minnesota normal schools to direct 
their efforts toward the preparation of high-school teachers. Our field is 
the elementary school. The elementary school alone, with increased salaries, 
with demands for better-prepared teachers in all grades, teachers of depart- 
mental work, and trained specialists and supervisors sufficiently justifies the 
enlarged facilities. The 80 or 90 high-school normal-training departments are 
seeking their teachers from among the number of experienced normal-school 



HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS — DEGREES. 103 

graduates and have already created a demand which normal schools are unable 
to supj)ly. Indeed, there is no field where the service of scholarship is more needed 
than in elementary education, rural and graded, none where the problems will 
continue to grow more as years go by, none whose solution will more fully min- 
ister to the welfare of the State. The normal school should regard these i)rob- 
lems of elementary education as distinctly and quite exclusively its own and 
attack them with the enthusiasm and energy inspired by a great mission. 

Four-year degree courses for elementary teachers considered. — A 
part of the history of the movement to develop four-year courses for 
elementary-school teachers and supervisors by the Minnesota State 
normal schools, and a description of the cooperative manner in which 
the problem was attacked are given in the following paragraphs 
quoted from the report of the president of the State normal school 
board for 1911-12 : ^ 

The harmonious relations between the normal schools and the State University 
and the unity which is characteristic of the State's educational institutions is 
evidenced by the arrangement made between the normal schools and the imiver- 
sity, whereby advanced normal graduates receive credit for two years of study 
upon entering the college of education. Through this arrangement, by two 
j'ears' additional work in the college of education, the advanced graduate may 
earn the degree of that college. It is thought that this will have the effect of 
encouraging a larger number of yoxing men to enter the normal schools, teach 
for a period, and at the same time afford an opportunity for both men and 
women who complete the advanced normal course to apply their training toward 
the earning of a college degree. 

At the last session of the legislature a bill was introduced which had the 
approval of this board aiming to extend the present normal-school course by 
two years, thus making it possible to give the normal students a more thorough 
and complete training, and to train principals for graded schools, teachers for 
the training departments in high schools, and make the normal schools more 
effective agencies in the leadership and direction of public-school work. 

This act failed to pass largely because of the fear that it would make possible, 
in time, the conversion of the several normal schools into normal colleges. At 
its meeting in August of the present year the normal board and the presidents, 
after a full discussion of this subject, decided to renew the request. In this 
connection a conference was held between the normal board and the presidents, 
with representatives of the State university, the private colleges, the members 
of the high-school board, and its inspectors. This conference developed a very 
friendly spirit and cooperative interest on the part of the educational institutions 
of the State and resulted in the normal board, upon the recommendation of the 
normal-school presidents, postponing for the present further activity in the 
effort to secure a law necessary to make the proposed extended course of study 
attractive to the students desiring to obtain the degree of bachelor of education. 

Normal schools may soon give four-year degree courses for ele- 
mentary teachers. — These quotations from the Minnesota reports 
illustrate the fact that (a) the training of high-school teachers and 
(b) the conferring of degrees by State normal schools may be sepa- 
rate problems. Several normal schools now give three-year courses 

1 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction for Minnesota, 1912, p. 95. 



104 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

for high-school graduates who expect to teach in elementary schools, 
and it is quite conceivable that similar four-year courses will even- 
tually prove necessary or desirable, and that bachelor's degrees should 
be conferred on the completion of such courses. These degrees should 
not be given for three-year courses, however. 

Three-year degree courses discredit normal schools. — It is very 
unfortunate for normal schools that some of them have given or are 
giving bachelor's degrees for the completion of three years of work 
beyond high school. The fundamental reason for giving such degrees 
is not easy to ascertain, but the practice is probably related to the 
fact that it is difficult to get many students to attend most normal 
schools beyond the third year of collegiate work. They prefer to go 
to the State university. Even to get them to do three years of col- 
legiate work in the normal school the degree must be offered as a 
special inducement. This has had the very bad effect of discrediting 
normal-school work in the estimation of many persons. They assume 
that since normal schools give a " cheap " degree, therefore all of the 
work of the normal schools is " cheap," unthorough, and incomplete. 
As a matter of fact, a normal school giving a bachelor's degree for 
three years of collegiate work may be superior to many standard 
colleges in the strength of its faculty and of its individual courses. 



Chapter XIII. 
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 



Disproportionately large discussion of a small function. — The 
training of special teachers constitutes a small part of the work of 
State normal schools. Such training, however, excites an amount of 
discussion and planning that is proportionately much greater than the 
total amount of normal-school energy devoted to it. To read the re- 
quests of normal-school authorities for funds for new buildings and 
special equipments for the training of special teachers, and to survey 
the elaborate courses of study found in many of the catalogues, one 
w^ould infer that these courses were intended to train a great many 
teachers. When the statistics showing the number of new special 
teachers employed in public schools, as compared with the number of 
general ones, are examined, and the number of graduates in the spe- 
cial normal courses compared with the number in the general courses, 
a better i^erspective view of the situation is obtained. 

Only 8 per cent of new teachers are in special and vocational 
subjects. — The relative number of new general and special teachers 
employed during a year in a representative Eastern State may be seen 
from the following statistics, taken from the report of State School 
Commissioner Kendall, of New Jersey, for the years ending June 30, 
1912, and June 30, 1913 (p. 130) : 

Total number of new teachers : in 1912. In ms. 

In rural schools 1, 006 1, 055 

In city schools 721 763 

Total 1, 727 1, 818 

This number was divided as follows : 

In high schools 217 300 

In elementary schools 1,510 1,518 

Total 1, 727 1, 818 

Of this total, teachers of vocational subjects, such as manual train- 
ing, domestic science, etc., and of special subjects, such as music, 
drawing, etc., were as follows: 

Teachers of vocational subjects : in I9i2. in ms. 

In rural schools 14 24 

In city schools 46 51 

Total 60 75 

105 



106 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

Teachers of special subjects : /« 1912. in i9is. 

In rural schools 23 55 

In city schools 42 18 

Total 65 73 

Number of vocational and special teachers combined 125 148 

Thus the number of new vocational and special teachers needed in 
New Jersey in a year constitutes only about 8 per cent of the total 
number of new teachers needed. 

A new special subject creates temporary demand for teachers. — 
A further item that must be kept in mind in determining the relative 
number of special and general teachers needed is the fact that when 
special courses are being rapidly introduced, there is created an in- 
creased temporary demand for such teachers, which will decrease 
after most of the new positions have been filled. Such a situation 
has developed during the last few years in the preparation of teach- 
ers for home economics. The large temporary demand for teachers 
in this subject will probably soon decline to the proportions of the 
demands for teachers of music, drawing, and manual training. 

Very small number of graduates in special courses in normal 
schools. — The relative number of graduates in the general and the 
special courses of the normal schools gives us evidence concerning the 
proportion of normal-school energy consumed in . the training of 
special teachers. 

Perhaps the most pessimistic account of the number of students 
graduating in the special courses is the following paragraph from 
the 1912 report of the president of the Mayville (N. Dak.) Normal 
School, which was opened in 1890. After stating that students do 
not take the advanced course for high-school graduates, the president 
says (p. 217) : 

Nor have any students graduated as yet from any of the special two-year 
courses for high-school graduates. The foremost reasons are (1) the sensible 
unwillingness of students to specialize at an age when the need of general edu- 
cation is so great, and (2) the relatively small demand for teachers of special 
subjects, especially in the smaller communities, where nearly all graduates at 
first go. There are, however, a great many students who take, as parts of gen- 
eral courses which they may be pursuing, from one to three terms' work in the 
special subjects and who are thus fairly well qualified to give elementary in- 
struction in the subjects studied. 

The following statistics from the Winthrop (S. C.) Normal and In- 
dustrial College throw light on the relative number of general and 
special positions secured by its graduates. The board of trustees in 
their report for 1913 (p. 16) state that from May to December the 
school had received 301 applications for teachers and had placed 
graduates as follows : 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS, 



107 



Positions secured by Winthrop graduates. 



General positions: 

In high-school grades 

In grammar grades 

In elementary grades 

In kindergarten grades 

In rural schools 

In mill schools 

Supernumerary in Charle;s.- 
ton schools 



16 

29 

32 

2 

38 
6 



Total. 



124 



Special positions: 

In domestic science and re- 
lated subjects 

Dietitian in Iiospital 

In music and manual train- 
ing 

Expression in college 

Total 



Further evidence concerning tlie number of special and general 
graduates may be obtained from the following statistics of graduation 
reported for the Mount Pleasant (Mich.) Normal School in the re- 
port of the State board of education for 1912 (p. 29) : 

Graduates frotn Mount Pleasant (Mich.) Normal School, July 1, 1911, to July 

1, 1912. 

In the general courses (life certificate, kindergarten-primary, graded school, 
advanced, and elementary rural-scliool courses) 22G 

In courses for special teacliers : 

Public-school music course 2 

Drawing and manual-arts course 6 

Music and drawing course 4 

Manual-arts course 3 

Special drawing course 1 

16 

Total graduates 242 

In this school the graduates in the courses for special teachers con- 
stituted only 7 per cent of the total number of graduates. Moreover, 
the number in any special subject veas so small that the maintenance 
of adequate special courses to give this number special training must 
have been relatively quite expensive. As we shall notice below, the 
Michigan State Board of Education adopted a plan to go into effect 
in 1913 that corrected this situation. 

A slightly greater proportion of special graduates is shown in the 
following statistics of graduation from the Northern Illinois Normal 
School, at De Kalb, based on the quarterly announcement for August, 

1914: 

Seniors of 191.'f in Northern Illinois Normal School. 

In courses for general teachers (1, 2, 3, and 5 year courses) 118 

In courses for special teachers ; 

2-year course in vocal music j. 3 

2-year course for teachers of drawing -__j 5 

2-year course for teachers of manual training ----■■ ^ 

2-year course for teachers of domestic science 16 

28 



Total number of seniors 146 



108 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



er, 1 

fit, I 

iq1 1 



Apart from the prospective teachers of domestic science, however 
the situation at De Kalb is practically the same as at Mount Pleasant 
Mich. ; that is, the seniors specializing in music, drawing, and manual 
training constitute only 8 per cent of the senior class, and in no one 
of these subjects is there a sufficient number of seniors to compose a 
class large enough so that the teaching of it would not be relatively 
expensive. 

Finally the statistics from one of the largest normal schools in the 
country, namely, the California State Normal School, at Los Angeles, 
should be noted. Only graduates of four-year high schools are ad- 
mitted to this school, and the annual number of graduates is over 
500. Students may graduate in December, March, and June, but to 
simplify the calculations from the data given in the announcement 
for 1914-15, the number of candidates for graduation in June, 1914, 
will be used, as given below : 

Candidates for graduation in general course, including kindergartners 325 

Candidates for graduation in special courses : 

In the department of art 23 

In the department of home economics 40 

In the department of manual ai-ts 16 

In the department of music 13 

92 

Total candidates; for graduation in June, 1914 417 

In this large institution the candidates for graduation in art, the 
manual arts, and music constitute 12 per cent of the total candidates 
for graduation, a slightly larger proportion than was found in the 
cases of the Michigan and Illinois normal schools. Moreover, the 
number of graduates specializing in each of these subjects is suffi- 
cient to make a large enough class to be taught at the average expense 
of normal-school instruction. 

Three methods of organizing special training courses within a 
State. — Methods of meeting the definite but restricted needs for 
trained special teachers vary with different States. The following 
types of provision may be distinguished : 

1. The establishment of separate normal schools for the training of 
special teachers. The Boston Normal Art School and the State 
Manual Training Normal School at Pittsburg, Kans., are examples. 

2. The development of adequate facilities for the training of spe- 
cial teachers in certain of the existing general normal schools of a 
State, with definite restriction of the development of similar facilities 
in other schools of the same State. The arrangements in the States 
of New York and Michigan are examples. 

3. The permitting of any normal school in the State to develop 
facilities for any special courses that it cares to give. Many of the 
States present examples of this arrangement. 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 109 

Concentration of facilities versus duplication. — In general, the 
economical concentration of adequate facilities for training special 
teachers is likely to prevail where there is centralized expert control 
of the normal schools of a State, based on an objective study of the 
needs of the State. The development of uneconomical, inadequate 
facilities in a number of schools of the same State is likely to prevail 
where each State school is free to multiply courses according to its 
own ambitions. AVe shall take up the discussion of each of the three 
types of organization with typical examples. 

1. SEPARATE NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR SPECIAL TEACHERS. 

Massachusetts Normal Art School earliest example. — The most 
striking example of the establishment of a separate State normal 
school for the training of special teachers is the organization of the 
Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston. An excellent account 
of the history, work, and possibilities of this school is given by David 
Snedden, commissioner of education, in the seventy- seventh annual 
report of the Massachusetts Board of Education (January, 1914). 
The opening paragraph reads as follows: 

The Massachusetts Normal Art School, unlike the other State normal schools, 
trains teachers only for special departments, namely, drawing and manual train- 
ing. It was organized in 1873, primarily because there existed no other agency 
in the State capable of training special teachers of these subjects; and sec- 
ondarily to make possible the artistic training of artisans. Since 1873 the school 
has grown steadily, until at present its attendance is in the neighborhood of 325. 
It has gradually added in a variety of ways to its original functions, especially 
in the direction of offering courses in industrial and applied arts for prospective 
industrial workers (page 45). 

Organized to meet definite industrial needs in Massachusetts. — The 
definite relation of the organization of this school to the economic 
needs of the State as these were reflected in the introduction of a new 
subject into the elementary curriculum is shown in the following 
quotation : 

About 1870, various persons in Massachusetts, a number of them identified 
with the larger commercial enterprises of the State, became convinced that if 
local industries were to be further developed, more attention must be given to 
instruction in drawing. In 1869, a petition was presented to the legislature, 
asking that provision be made by State law for instruction in industrial art. 
The petition contained this statement : 

Every branch of manufacture in which the citizens of Massachusetts are 
engaged requires, in details of the processes connected with it, some knowledge 
of drawing and other arts of design on the part of skilled workmen engaged. 

The legislature of 1870 made drawing a required study in the public schools of 
the Commonwealth, and also provided for the opening of evening industrial 
drawing schools. After a considerable campaign, provision was made for the 
establishment of the Normal Art School in 1873. From the discussion that took 
place at this time it was evident that several objects were in view on the part 



110 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

of those who favored the founding of this school. First, it was essential that 
special teachers and supervisors of drawing be provided to make possible the 
teaching of drawing in the schools, as required by State law. Second, it was 
expected that young persons preparing for work in the trades should, in some 
cases in this school and in some cases in the evening drawing schools in the large 
cities, receive that special equipment in drawing and other phases of industrial 
art which the industries of the Commonwealth seemed to require (page 46). 

The Massachusetts Normal Art School was the first institution of its kind in 
the country. Since 1873 it has graduated a large number of students, many of 
whom have figured prominently in the artistic and educational activities of the 
Commonwealth. Some of its distinguished graduates have become heads of simi- 
lar or larger institutions in other States, as New York, New Jersej', Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and Illinois. Some of these schools now greatly surpass the parent 
institution in Massachusetts in extent and in variety of work carried on 
(page 47). 

The most important function of the Normal Art School, namely, to train spe- 
cial teachers and supervisors of drawing for the public schools of the Common- 
wealth, is now well defined. During the 40 years of its history the school has 
graduated a large number of students who have followed teaching as a career. 
The results of their influence are apparent in all tlie public schools of Massa- 
chusetts. The course of study for prospective teachers is four years in length. 
It is probable that special courses, occupying an additional year, will soon be 
added, by means of which experienced teachers of drawing who wish to become 
supervisors of this subject in public school systems can obtain the required 
special equipment. The details of the program of instruction for the training 
of teachers and supervisors of drawing have been worked out and tested on the 
basis of experience. In selecting a new principal for the school the board has 
arranged that he should also serve the State as director of art education, so that 
the Normal Art School would have a direct relation to the supervision of draw- 
ing and of manual arts in the schools of the Commonwealth (page 50). 

State Manual Training Normal School of Kansas. — A second 
example of a normal school established for the training of special 
teachers is the State Manual Training Normal School established at 
Pittsburg, Kans., in 1903. While this school makes very special pro- 
vision for the training of teachers of technical subjects, it maintains 
at the same time the courses for general teachers found in most normal 
schools. The relative amount of energy consumed in these two lines 
of activity may be estimated from the following statistics concerning 
members of the faculty as outlined in the catalogue of the school for 
June, 1914: 

Faculty of the Kansas State Manual Training Normal School. 

Teachers of technical subjects related to manual training : 

Of manual training 4 

Of home economics 4 

Of graphic and plastic art 5 



13 



Teachers of other special subjects in which certificates are given : 

Commerce 2 

Agriculture 1 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. HI 

Teachers of other subjects generally found in normal schools (education, 
English, history, mathematics, science, physical education, music, lan- 
guages) 19 

Critic teachers 4 

President 1 

Not stated 1 



Total 41 

The number of graduates of the Kansas State Manual Training 
Normal School in June, 1914, is shown in the following table : 



Courses. 



Graduates of the technical courses related to manual training and leading to a 
bachelor's degree: 

Of the industrial arts course 

Of the home economics course 

Graduates of other special courses: 

Of the special language course 

Of the commerce course 

Of the agriculture course 

Of the industrial physics course 

Of the drawing supervisor's course 

Graduates of the general course: 

Of the general course for the bachelor's degree 

Of the kindergarten teacher's course 

Of the primary teacher's course 

Of the grade teacher's course 



Num- 
ber 
of de- 
grees. 



I'rr 

cent. 



9.8 
41.1 



8.0 



41.1 



Total number of graduates. 



51 100.0 



Life 
di- 
plo- 
mas. 



I'er 
cent. 



10. H 
26.9 

2.3 
1.5 
1.5 



.0 

46.2 

.4 

6.2 

3.3 



212 100.0 



Provides also alarge amount of general training. — These data make 
it possible to calculate roughly the proportion of normal-school energy 
that goes into the lines implied in the name " Manual Training Nor- 
mal School." Using the number of teachers as the basis, we may say 
that 31 per cent of the teaching energy is devoted to technical subjects 
related to manual training. Using the number of graduates as the 
basis, though the issue is somewhat obscured by the different forms of 
graduates, we may say that only a minority of the graduates are pre- 
pared to teach technical subjects related to manual training. In 
contrast with this number a very appreciable part of the whole body 
of graduates go into general teaching. 

Excellent mechanic arts building and equipment. — The thorough- 
ness of the equipment for technical work in manual training and 
related lines in the Kansas State Manual Training Normal School 
is suggested by the accompanjang picture of the Mechanic Arts Build- 
ing, which cost $62,000 to erect. Its equipment cost $20,000. The 
work in wood, iron, clay, and in drawing is done in this building. 
Classes in domestic science and domestic art are housed in the general 
academic building, and there is a large separate power plant. These 
points are worth noting, since so-called manual training buildings are 
sometimes erected at normal schools, but are used extensively for gen- 
eral classroom purposes, administrative offices, etc. This is due to the 
15607°— 16 8 



112 STANDARDIZING' STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

fact that it is easy to get money from a legislature for buildings for 
the " practical " arts ; but there is seldom any special agency to see 
that the building is used exclusively for the purpose for which it. was 
constructed. 

North Dakota State Normal and Industrial School. — In North 
Dakota, in the EUendale State Normal and Industrial School, we 
find another example of a normal school established especially to 
train manual-training teachers. Under the heading "Purpose and 
scope of the school," the catalogue for June, 1914, states that the 
school — 

was established by legislative enactment in 1893, in accordance with a section 
of the State constitution i^roviding for its creation. The revised law of 1907 
relating to this school reads as follows (p. 10 of catalogue) : 

That the institution located at EUendale, Dickey County, N. Dak., be designated 
the State Normal and Industrial School, the object of such school being to pro- 
vide instruction in a comprehensive way in wood and iron work and the various 
other branches of domestic economy as a coordinate branch of education, together 
with mathematics, drawing, and the other school studies, and to prepare teachers 
in the science of education and the art of teaching in the public schools with 
special reference to manual training. 

The accompanying pictures show the Mechanic Arts Building and 
a class in farm engineering. 

Trains as many general teachers as special teachers. — The extent to 
which the school trains teachers of the special type for which it was 
especially established, as compared with the extent to which it pro- 
vides training for general teachers, may be seen from the following 
statistics of the senior class given in the catalogue for June, 1914: 
Seniors in the special courses : 

In the normal manual training and the mechanic arts courses 8 

In the normal home economics and the home economics course;S 8 

Total special seniors 16 

Seniors in the general normal course 20 

Total number of seniors in above courses 36 

Thus we see that only 44 per cent of these seniors are specializing 
in the subjects which were emphasized in the official statement of the 
purpose of the school. 

Exclusive manual training normal schools not justified. — In each 
of the two special manual training normal schools that have been dis- 
cussed (namely, the one at Pittsburg, Kans., and the one at EUendale, 
N. Dak.), it has been seen that a large part of the teaching energy, 
perhaps the major part, goes into the training of general teachers. 
This fact might suggest that there is not sufficient demand within a 
single State for teachers of manual training and related subjects to 
justify the State in maintaining a separate specialized normal school 
to train such teachers. 

Normal and industrial schools train few industrial teachers. — A 
few States maintain normal schools which have names similar to the 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OP SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 113 

one at Ellendale, N. Dak., namely, "the State Normal and Industrial 
School." Some of these are for white students and several are for 
Negroes. In none of the schools for whites does the training of 
special industrial teachers play a very large part. Examples of such 
schools are those at Harrisonburg, Va., Ellendale, N. Dak., Aberdeen, 
S. Dak., and the " Winthrop Normal and Industrial College," in 
South Carolina. Statistics showing positions secured by graduates 
from the latter were given above on page 107. At Harrisonburg, Va., 
in June, 1913, the graduating class was divided as follows (catalogue, 
1914): 

Candidates for the general and the kindergarten diplomas 40 

Candidates for the household arts diplomas 2 

Candidates for the industrial arts diplomas 5 

Similarly the senior class at Aberdeen, S. Dak., for 1913-14 was 
divided as follows (catalogue, 1914) : 

Seniors in the advanced general normal course.. 39 

Seniors in the household arts course 5 

Seniors in the industrial normal course .^ . 1 

Thus we see that relatively few students of these schools complete 
the special courses for "industrial " teachers in the " State normal 
and industrial schools " for white students. 

State normal and industrial schools for negroes. — Among the 
State normal and industrial schools for negroes are those at Frank- 
fort, Ky. ; Nashville, Tenn. ; and Prairie View, Tex. Similar insti- 
tutions are found in nearly all of the Southern States. Judging from 
the alumni lists, most of the graduates of these schools go into gen- 
eral teaching in elementary schools for colored children; but the 
industrial courses play a much larger part in the training of these 
graduates and of other students who do not graduate than is the case 
in the corresponding schools for whites. The amount of teaching 
energy devoted ta industrial subjects in such an institution may be 
inferred from the following classification of members of the faculty 
at the Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College in Texas 
(catalogue 1913-14) : 
Teachers of special industrial subjects : 

Industrial economics 1 

Agriculture 4 

Mechanics 2 

Cooking 3 

Sewing 3 

Tailoring 1 

Shoemaking 1 

Plumbing 1 

Carpentry 1 

Blacksmithing 1 

Broom and mattress making 1 

Total teachers of special industrial subjects 19 

Teachers of other general subjects commonly found in normal schools 15 



114 STANDAKDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

These schools are reproducing on a small scale the excellent work 
for improving the Negroes that is carried on so extensively at 
Hampton and Tuskegee. 

Stout Institute, highly specialized and successful. — Perhaps the 
most influential of the State normal schools which are organized 
especially to train teachers of special subjects is the Stout Institute, at 
Menominee, Wis. This school was organized in 1903. 

For a long time it has ranked, with Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., and Bradley Polytechnic Institute, of Peoria, 111., among the 
best schools for providing superior tAvo-year courses for high-school 
graduates who are preparing to teach manual training and related 
subjects in public schools. Later Stout Institute was acquired by 
the State of Wisconsin and is now governed by a board of trustees, 
including as ex officio members the State superintendent of public 
instruction of AVisconsin, the secretary of the board of trustees, and 
the dean of the college of engineering of the University of Wisconsin. 
The board also includes three employers of labor and three skilled 
employees. 

The highly specialized nature of the training offered at Stout Insti- 
tute is suggested by the following statistics concerning its faculty 
(announcement, 1914-15) : 

Distribution of teachers' time in Stout Institute. 

Teachers of woodwork 5i 

Teachers of ironwork 2 

Teacher of bricklaying 1 

Teacher of plumbing and gas fitting 1 

Teachers of printing and primary handwork li 

Teachers of sewing, etc 6 

Teachers of cooking 7 

Teachers of home and social economics 2 

Teachers of drawing, design, etc 5i 

General teachers (education, science, English, physical education) 7J 

Critic teacher 1 



Total 40 

It is evident from the above table that the teaching energy of the 
faculty of Stout Institute is directed almost exclusively to the giving 
of specialized courses for training teachers of manual training, draw- 
ing, cooking, sewing, and trades. About 80 per cent of the teaching 
energy goes into these technical subjects. The same impression is 
gained from the following list of courses of instruction offered : 



GENERAL COURSES. 



Psychology and pedagogy. 
Observation and practice teaching. 
English. 
Physical training. 



Applied science. 
Physiology and hygiene. 
General chemistry. 
Microbiology. 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 



115 



TECHNICAL COURSES. 



Manual training department : 

Organization of manual training. 

History and literature of manual 
training. 

Industrial economics. 

Elementary mechanical drawing. 

Projection drawing. 

Machine drafting. 

Elementary architectural draw- 
ing. 

Advanced architectural drawing. 

Manual training design. 

Freehand drawing. 

Elementary woodwork. 

Upper grade woodwork. 

Joinery. 

Pattern making. 

Elementary carpentry. 

Advanced carpentry. 

Millwork. 

Cabinet making. 

Elementary wood turning. 

Advanced wood turning. 

Elementary wood finishing. 

Advanced wood finishing. 

Saw filing. 

Elementary forging. 

Advanced forging. 

Elementary machine shopwork. 

Advanced machine shopwork. 

Millwrighting. 

Foundry practice. 

Cement work. 

Elementary bricklaying. 



Manual training department — Con- 
tinued. 

Advanced bricklaying. 

Elementary plumbing. 

Advanced plumbing. 

Special shopwork. 

Primary handwork. 

Elementary printing. 

Advanced printing. 
Home economics department : 

Food study. 

Elementary cookery. 

Dietetics. 

Advanced cookery. 

Food chemistry. 

Chemistry of nutrition. 

Plain sewing. 

Model sewing. 

Dressmaking. 

Art needlework. 

Textiles. 

Trade dressmaking. 
Home economics department — Con- 
tinued. 

Millinery. 

Drawing and art work. 

Mechanical drawing. 

Drawing and design. 

Interior decoration and furnish- 
ing. 

General organization and manage- 
ment. 

Emergencies and home nursing. 

Household management. 



Not merely a local Wisconsin institution. — The Stout Institute 
should not be regarded as merely a local institution of the State in 
which it is located, as most State normal schools may be regarded. 
Its students come from many States, and the catalogue for 1914-15 
states that its graduates are teaching or doing supervisory work in 
27 States and in Canada. 

2. SPECIAL COURSES AUTHORIZED IN CERTAIN SCHOOLS. 



The second policy in organizing training for special teachers is to 
provide for the development of adequate facilities in certain of the 
existing general normal schools of a State, with definite restriction 
of the development of similar facilities in other schools of the same 
State. Inasmuch as a normal school that restricts itself to the train- 
ing of general teachers for elementary schools needs for this purpose 



116 STANDAEDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

teachers of music, drawing, and handwork, the necessary development 
of small departments for this purpose is permitted in all of the normal 
schools of the State. 

This policy favored in New Jersey. — A general expression of this 
type of policy is found in the 1913 report of State Commissioner 
Kendall, of New Jersey. It reads as follows : 

The State should utilize its normal schools for the special training of teachers 
for various kinds of special activities, Tlie normal scliool at Montclair, for ex- 
ample, could train teachers for mentally defective children. The State board 
of education and the principal of the school are maturing plans for this purpose. 

The State normal school at Newark might be utilized for the training of 
teachers for State-aided vocational schools and also for the training of teachers 
for manual training. The training of the former class of teachers should per- 
haps be mainly carried on in evening classes for men and women engaged during 
the day in the industries. Upon such men and women we must depend for 
teachers in these State-aided vocational schools. 

The normal school at Trenton is already training teachers for domestic science 
and commercial branches, and the school which it is hoped will be established 
in the southern part of the State should have a course for the adequate training 
of teachers in agricultural activities. 

The above is not so much the statement of a definite program as related to 
each particular school as it is the declaration of two principles : First, that the 
State, by means of its normal schools, should train, and train adequately, for the 
special activities in w'hich the State needs teachers ; and, second, that there should 
not be a duplication of training in two or more schools. Such duplication is not 
only wasteful, but liable to impair the quality of the instruction. Moreover, so 
many teachers might be trained in a given field that the demand for such teach- 
ers would be exceeded (pp. 134-135). 

Authorization of special courses in certain New York schools. — 
The policy advocated by Commissioner Kendall is being carried out in 
New York and Michigan. In the bulletin of the New York State de- 
partment of education of October 15, 1911, the latest issued dealing 
with normal schools), the following statement is found (p. 25) : 

SPECIAL NOEMAX-TBAINING COUBSES. 

To provide normal training for teachers of special courses in the public schools 
special professional courses have been authorized in the State normal schools. 
It is not the policy of the State to give all special courses in each of the State 
normal schools, but to assign to each school the special work for which it is best 
adapted by reason of its location, organization, and equipment. Such special 
courses have been authorized as follows : 

Biiffalo. — Mechanical drawing; machine-shop practice; printing, pattern 
making ; joinery and cabinet work ; cookery ; sewing and millinery. 

Cortland. — Agriculture course. 

Fredonia. — Music and drawing. 

Qeneseo. — Teacher-librarian's course. 

Oswego. — Manual arts. 

Plattsiurg. — Commercial course. 

Potsdam. — Music and drawing. 

The graduates of these courses will receive a diploma which will be a license 
to teach in the public schools of the State the subject completed. 



i 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 117 

The detailed content of each of the special courses listed above is 
outlined by the State department of education. 

The amount of teaching energy devoted to the organization of 
these special courses may be inferred from the data given below. 

In the Buffalo normal school, which is designated as the one to 
develop vocational courses, the faculty contains for this purpose the 
following instructors : ^ 

One man. principal of the vocational department. 
One man, teacher of drawing and penmanship. 
One woman, teacher of drawing. 
Three women, teachers of domestic sciences and arts. 

At Oswego, where special courses in manual arts are authorized, 
the faculty includes : ^ 

One man for director of manual arts, criticism, drawing, and shop administra- 
tion. 
One man for woodworking, art metal work, molding. 

Qne man for printing and supervision of printing and commercial lettering. 
One-third of a man's time for " form and drawing methods." 
One woman for domestic science. 
One-third of a woman's time for " sewing, basketry, weaving." 

At Plattsburg, which is especially authorized to give commercial 
courses, two teachers are employed for this purpose, but one of 
them is also principal of the high school. However, this faculty 
also includes two teachers of manual training, one of drawing, and 
one of domestic science and art — almost as large a staff in these 
lines for which it is not authorized to train special teachers as is 
found at Buffalo and Oswego. 

Michigan assignment of special courses to different schools. — The 
Michigan plan for assigning to different normal schools the function 
of training special teachers for certain subjects is described in the 
report of the State board of education for 1912, as follows (p. 7) : 

A new plan for the training of teachers for special subjects has been formu- 
lated. As at present arranged, each of the normal schools maintains depart- 
ments in the special subjects. Beginning with the fall of 1913. the State 
Normal College at Ypsilanti will prepare teachers in the household arts; the 
Central Michigan Normal School, at Mount Pleasant, will prepare teachers of 
agriculture ; and the Western State Normal School, at Kalamazoo, will train 
teachers in the manual arts and trades. The normal .school so designated for 
each subject is the only one empowered to issue diplomas or teacljers' certifi- 
cates in the given subject. This will not curtail the usefulness of the depart- 
ments already organized in other than the given subject, since it will continue 
to be desirable to provide all the special subjects as electlves. The new ruling 
will insure, by means of this concentration of effort, greater uniformity and 
thorough technical training for the special teachers. 

The faculty of the Ypsilanti normal school, as given in the year- 
book for 1913-14, contains about 85 teachers, excluding the faculty of 

1 Circular of information, 1914-15. " Catalogue for 1914-15. 



118 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

the training school. This inchides about 20 professors, 5 associate 
professors, 10 assistant professors, 20 instructors, and 30 assistants. 
In the department of household arts, which is assigned to Ypsilanti as 
a special department, there are five teachers. One of these is listed 
as head of the department (rank not stated), 2 are instructors, and 2 
assistants. This number of teachers is sufficient to provide strong 
courses in home economics and household arts in an institution where 
there are strong related departments in the natural sciences and the 
fine arts, as is the case at Ypsilanti. As regards material equipment, 
the yearbook states that in the near future a household-arts building 
will be erected. When this occurs, the number of instructors in this 
special department will probably be increased, since so large an insti- 
tution would probably develop an enormous registration in the house- 
hold-arts department. 

3. DUPLICATION OP SPECIAL COURSES IN SE^^:RAL SCHOOLS. 

The third type of policy in the organization of training for special 
teachers within a given State is to permit any normal school in the 
State to develop facilities for any special courses that it cares to give. 
This is the policy followed in most States, and, under it, most normal 
schools are likely to develop special two-year courses for teachers of 
music, drawing and manual training, and home economics. 

Sometimes done to use time of special teachers. — In the large 
schools where two or more college teachers are employed in any one 
of these subjects, a. fairly adequate course can be given. In the 
smaller schools where only one college teacher of each subject is 
employed, the special two-year course which he can offer is not likely 
to be strong. Unless such a special teacher is also employed in the 
practice school or the normal high-school, however, he is likely to have 
to offer a course for special teachers of his subject in order to employ 
his time; for in a small normal school the amount of instruction 
required in music, drawing, manual training, and home economics, 
for students in the general courses, is very slight. The general stu- 
dents seldom take more than two periods a week of music through two 
years, or two periods of drawing through one year, or two periods of 
manual training or home economics through part of one year. Yet so 
extensive is the discussion of these subjects that every school feels it 
must have a special teacher of each. This sometimes results in a 
rather anomalous situation in a small normal school, where there will 
be four special teachers for these special subjects, and only as many 
more teachers for the general subjects of education, English, history, 
sciences, and mathematics, which necessarily consume much more 
teaching energy in the preparation of general elementary teachers. 
For example, according to the 1914 catalogue of one of the New Eng- 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 119 

land normal schools, there are on the faculty four teachers of the 
general subjects (pedagogy, science, English, and sociology) and four 
teachers of the special subjects, one teacher each for art, domestic 
arts, music, and manual training. No doubt these teachers also teach 
the children in the practice school ; yet they find time to offer " a three 
years' curriculum to prepare for teaching and supervising music, 
drawing, and domestic arts." 

Specifically authorized in some States: Minnesota. — In some 
States each normal school is independent of any central control in 
organizing such special courses as it pleases to give. In other States, 
however, the State normal school board may specifically authorize all 
of the normal schools to offer all of the specialized courses. For 
example, in the case of Minnesota, we find the following action 
recorded in report of the State normal school board for 1911-12 : ^ 

The normal schools have responded to the demand, which has become very 
evident in the State, for teachers of specialized training. Upon the recom- 
mendations of the presidents (of the normal schools), the normal-school board 
has authorized the establishment of special courses for the training of super- 
visors of music and drawing, of special primary teachers, and teachers in 
home economics and manual training. 

The normal schools of Minnesota are large enough, on the average, 
so that slightly more than the time of one instructor is employed in 
the four standard specialized subjects, namely, music, drawing, man- 
ual training, and household arts or home economics. Consequently, 
instead of only four teachers for these subjects combined, from five 
to seven are employed. 

Examples of duplication in large normal schools of Missouri. — • 
Among the normal schools maintaining larger special departments 
under the third type of policy which we are discussing are those of 
Missouri. At Warrensburg the catalogue distinguishes the academic 
and the special or technical departments as follows: 

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT. 



Agriculture, physiography, and 
geography. 

Biology. 

Chemistry, physiology, and hy- 
giene. 

Economics. 

Education. 



English language and literature. 

French and German. 

History. 

Latin and Greek. 

Mathematics. 

Physics. 

Training school. 



Commerce. 
Drawing. 
Household arts. 



DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL SXTB.TECTS. 



Manual training. 

Music. 

Physical education. 



1 Sevontoenth Blen. Kept, of Snpt. of Pub. Instr. of Minnesota, p. 95. 



120 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

The number of teachers at Warrensburg, excluding those in the 
practice school, is about 40. In this number are included 2 teachers of 
drawing, 2 of manual training, 2 of home economics, and 4 of music. 
(Bulletin for 1914-15.) 

The number of teachers at the Kirksville (Mo.) Normal School is 
also about 40 (excluding teachers in the practice school and " teaching 
scholars"). In this number are included 1 full-time teacher and 1 
part-time teacher of manual arts, 2 of drawing, etc., 2 of home 
economics, and 3 of music. (Bulletin, 1914.) 

Somewhat similar data are found in the faculty of the normal 
school at Cape Girardeau, Mo. Thus each of three of the large 
normal schools of one State devotes approximately one-fourth of 
its teaching energy to these four special subjects. In the Warrens- 
burg and Cape Girardeau catalogues there are outlined full three- 
year courses for high-school graduates who plan to prepare to teach 
each of these special subjects. The number of graduates of each of 
these courses is not indicated, however. 

Second policy better than first or third. — Of the three types of 
policies in organizing courses for the training of special teachers in 
the normal schools of a State, it should be said that the first policy, 
namely, to establish a separate normal school for this purpose is 
probably not necessary in any State. This is shown by the fact that 
some schools that have been established in this way have become 
largely schools for training general teachers. The fact that all of 
the new special and vocational teachers in a State may constitute less 
than 10 per cent of the total number of new teachers shows that most 
States can ill afford to establish a special normal school for some 
part or all of this 10 per cent. 

The third type of policy, namely, permitting any normal school 
in the State to establish any special courses, is not bad where the 
normal schools concerned are so large that two or more teachers 
are employed in the special subject in which special training is to 
be given. In the smaller schools, however, it is likely to be inade- 
quate, owing to the lack of sufficient equipment and teaching staff. 
In any case, it is likely to prove expensive, through the unnecessary 
duplication of equipment and teaching staff in the several normal 
schools of the State. One of the most favorite bases for requests by 
normal school presidents to the legislature for additional funds is 
the plea for special buildings and equipment for these special courses. 
Yet the statistics show that relatively few graduates are produced 
even when the faculties are provided. 

Obviously, in most States, the best policy is the second one, namely, 
to develop adequate facilities for the training of teachers of a given 
special subject in one of the regular normal schools of the State. 
This avoids the waste entailed in establishing a special school, which 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 121 

prevails under the first policy, and the waste from duplication under 
the third policy. At the same time it may assure as thorough 
training as does the first policy, and avoid the inadequate training 
which may result from the third policy. 

SAMPLE COURSES OF STUDY FOR SPECIAL TEACHERS. 

The principal subjects in which normal schools provide training 
courses for special teachers are music, drawing, manual training, 
home economics and household arts, and commercial subjects. Prac- 
tically all normal schools have courses for general teachers in the first 
four subjects mentioned, and most of them announce training courses 
for special teachers in each subject. The organization of training 
courses for special teachers of commercial subjects is not so coimnon, 
but the courses are found in a number of normal schools. 

Difficult to analyze and classify courses. — To attempt to classify 
and describe the special courses provided in all these subjects would 
be a difficult task and would not be worth while from the standpoint 
of this bulletin. Certain general characteristics may be noted, how- 
ever, and a few sample courses in manual training, home economics, 
and commercial subjects presented. 

Two opposite types of curricula. 1. Much general work in- 
cluded. — In general, the courses organized for the training of special 
teachers fall into two main types. The first type of course is con- 
structed by slightly modifying the regular course for general teach- 
ers. This modification usually consists in permitting a prospective 
special teacher to elect about one-fourth of his work in the special 
subject in which he is interested. The remainder of his course will 
consist of the usual courses in education, psychology, geography, 
mathematics, physical training, etc., taken by the students in the gen- 
eral course. This type of course is common in the normal schools 
where there is only one teacher for the special subject in question. 
Needless to say, the graduates of such special courses have had very 
meager training for their specialties. 

A modification of the above type of course is to provide an addi- 
tional year of more or less special training for students who have 
completed one of the regular courses for general teachers. This addi- 
tional year, however, often contains further work in general subjects, 
such as the history of education or sociology, and may not provide 
any more thorough special training than the shorter course described 
above. 

2. Two or three years of highly specialized work. — The opposite 
type of course consists of two or three years of work devoted almost 
entirely to the special subject that the student is preparing to teach, 



122 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



with such courses in other subjects as are definitely and specifically 
helpful in the special subject. A few hours in education and prac- 
tice teaching are usually included in such a program. When one 
becomes familiar with the large amount of special and related sub- 
ject matter that it is necessary to master in order to be well prepared 
to teach any one of the special subjects imder consideration, there 
remains no doubt that these more highly specialized courses are 
necessary in order to give adequate training. 

Samfle irmnual training course^ Oxford^ Ohio. — As a sample 
manual training course, there is outlined below the work required in 
the two-year course for high-school graduates at the State Normal 
School at Oxford, Ohio. There are about 5 teachers to give the 
special instruction included in this course, and there were 6 gradu- 
ates from it in 1915. It is of the last general type described above, 
namely, almost entirely special in content. 

Course for special teachers of manual arts. 



FIRST YEAU. 

Hours. 

Object drawing and sketching 2 

Elementary mechanical drawing — 4 

Elementary design 2 

Psychology, principles of teaching- 6 

Rhetoric and composition 6 

Handworli in wood 6 

Sanitation and hetilth : 

a. Hygiene; first aid 1 

ft. Physical education 2 

Elective 3 



SECOND YEAR. 

Hours. 

Advanced mechanical drawing 4 

Constructive design 2 

Modern educational tendencies 3 

Organization and special method of 

the manual arts 4 

Cabinetmaking 6 

Trigonometry ; analytics ; shop 

mathematics 6 

School organization and manage- 
ment 3 

Teaching manual arts 4 



Credits required for first year 32 Credits required second year 32 

All students are strongly iirged to complete the full four-year course (see 
p. 117) and receive the degree of bachelor of science in education, thereby 
placing themselves in line for the better teaching positions. However, those 
who must teach before completing the four-year course may take the course 
above and receive a State diploma and State teaching certificate. All electives 
In the course must be manual arts subjects. 

Sample home economics courses. Valley City, N. Dak. — The course 
in home economics (domestic science) in the State Normal School at 
Valley City, N. Dak., is a good example of a two-year course for high- 
school graduates which contains a large amount of general work. 
There were either three or four teachers in the special department 
(three in the faculty list, but four in the departmental description) 
and 23 graduates from the course in June, 1914.^ The course of study 
is outlined below. 



1 Catalogue, 1914, p. 21. 



TBAINING OF TEACHERS OP SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 



123 



Domestic science course at Valley, City, N. Dak. 

FIBST YEAB. 



Fall. 


Winter. 


Spring. 


Psychology. 

General inethods and 

penmanship methods 

(each 6 weeks). 
Physiology. 
Chemistry. 
Domestic science. 


Psychology. 

Reading inethods and sing- 
ing methods (each 6 
weeks). 

Arithmetic. 

Chemistry. 

Domestic science. 


Psychologj'. 
History. 

Household chemistry. 
Domestic science. 
Home nursing and textiles 
(each 6 weeks). 



SECOND YFAR. 



Fall. 


Winter. 


Spring. 


History of education. 
Grammar. 
Teaching. 
Economic biology. 
Domestic science. 


Philosophy of education. 
Geography. 
Teaching. 
Economic biology. 
Domestic science. 


School management. 
Teaching. 
Economic biology. 
Domestic science. 
Millinery and art needle- 
work. 



Los Angeles, Cal. — A much more specialized course in home eco- 
nomics is the one in the State normal school at Los Angeles, Cal. The 
department of home economics in this institution had 2 teachers in 
1914-15, with 2 student assistants, and a third teacher for part of the 
year. The number of candidates for graduation in the home eco- 
nomics course in June, 1914, numbered 40. (Announcement, 1914r-15.) 
The department offered a two-3'ear course for high-school graduates 
and a one-year course for normal-school graduates. Only the two- 
year course is outlined below : 

Home economics course at Los Angeles, Cal. 



First year. 



First term. 

Psychology 

Cookery 

Sewing 

Art 

Textiles 

Total 

Second term. 

Cookery 

Sewing 

Art 

Food production and manufacture 

Home management 

Supplemental 

Total 

Third term. 

Psychology 

Cookery 

Sewing 

Food chemistry 

Costume design 

Nursing 

Total 



Units. 



Second year. 



First term. 

Education 

Teaching and observation 

Cookery 

Millinery , 

Home economics education 

Total 

Second term. 

Teaching and observation 

Cookery 

Dressmaking 

Supplemental 

Total 

Third term. 

Teaching and observation 

Dietetics 

House fumLshing and decoration 

History of home economics 

Bacteriology 

Supplemental 

Total 



Units. 



18 



124 



STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 



Sample course for commercial teachers: Salem, Mass. — As a final 
sample of courses for the training of special teachers, we shall pre- 
sent a course for prospective teachers of commercial subjects, which 
is offered in the State normal school at Salem, Mass. In this school 
the time of about four teachers is devoted to instruction in commercial 
subjects, and there were 15 graduates from the department in June, 
1913. The fundamental course covers three years of work for high- 
school graduates. In a note in the catalogue for 1913-14 it is stated 
that the State board of education had under consideration the length- 
ening of the course to four years, which would include one year of 
business experience under the supervision of the school. The three- 
year course is largely specialized, but includes a certain amount of 
work in closely related subjects. It is outlined below.^ 

Course for commercial teachers at Salem, Mass, 



First year. 


Hours 

per 
week. 


Second year. 


Hours 

per 
week. 


Third year. 


Hours 

per 
week. 


English 


2 

4 
5 
2 

2 

2 
3 
1 
1 
1 


English 


2 

1 
3 
3 

3 

2 
2 

3 
1 
3 
1 


Literature 


4 


Shorthand 


Commercial correspond- 
ence 


Shorthand 


3 








3 


General history 


Typewriting 


Commercial law 


2 




American history and 
civics 


History of commerce, 
economics, half year 
each 






Commercial geography.. 
Commercial arittunetic. 


3 


Physiography 


Industrial geography 


2 


Industrial physics and 
chemistry 






3 




Penmanship 


Penmanship 


1 


Physiology 


Psychology 


Pedagogy 


2 




Music 


Music 


1 




Total 


Total 




Total 


23 


24 


24 











Observation and practice teaching, 9 weeks. 

A carefully elaborated announcement of normal-school courses for 
the training of commercial teachers is the third annual commercial 
catalogue of the State normal school at Whitewater, Wis. In 1913 
the board of regents established a special department &.t this school 
for training commercial teachers, and very thoroughly organized 
courses are offered. 

Courses for teachers of trades. — Special courses for teachers of 
trades and related vocational courses are not discussed here, because 
the normal schools have not generally undertaken the task of training 
such teachers and are probably not fitted to do so in most cases. 
According to Commissioner Snedden, of Massachusetts, the best plan 
for training such teachers is to organize evening courses in the State- 
aided industrial schools in certain of the larger cities. These courses 
would give the necessary general and professional training to intelli- 
gent skilled workmen who are engaged during the day in the trade. 
After completing the evening course they would be prepared for 

1 Catalogue, 1913-14, p. 39. 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 



125 



teaching. Graduation from an industrial school and experience in 
the trade should precede the professional training. For further 
discussion, see the annual report of the Massachusetts Board of Edu- 
cation for 1912-13, pages 62-G8. 

Of the existing State normal schools, Stout Institute in Wisconsin 
is the one that is most adequately equipped to train teachers of trades. 
Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, receives a small amount of State aid 
and to that extent may be considered a State school. Needless to 
state, it provides the most thorough and efficient courses for training 
teachers of trades, many of its graduates being engaged in similar 
smaller schools for negroes. Likewise, Hampton Institute in Vir- 
ginia provides excellent training for teachers of trades. If day 
schools for this purpose are to be established for white teachers in the 
North, they might profit by a study of the methods pursued at Tuske- 
gee and Hampton. 

Courses for special teachers of agriculture. — A few normal schools 
maintain well-organized special courses for teachers of agriculture. 
A good example is the three-year course for high-school graduates in 
the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Mo. The department of 
agriculture in this school employs three men as teachers. Hence, it 
is well-staffed to give the special courses to prepare teachers of this 
subject in high schools. The three-year course is of the highly 
specialized type. It is outlined below. 

Course for special teachers of agriculture at Cape Girardeau, Mo. 



FIRST YEAR. 



Fall term. 


Hours. 


Winter term. 


Hours. 


Spring term. 


Hours. 


Chemistry 


4 
4 

3 


Chemistry 


4 
3 

4 

15i 


Agricultural chemistry . 
Dairying 




Livestock 


Live stock 






Manual training . . . 


Manual training.. 


li 


Education 


Education 


Education 






Cotton 














15i 


17i 



SECOND YEAR. 



Plant physiology or 

zoology 

Physical practice 

Soils 

Education 

Do 

Forge 



Morphology or zoology 

Physical practice ". 

Horticultiu-e 

Education 

Do 

Forge 



Plant ecology or zoology 

Physical practice 

Farm management 

Education 

Do 

Forge 







THIRD YEAR. 








Agricultural physics 


4 
3 
4 
4 


Agricultural physics 


4 
2 
4 
4 
3 


Agricultural physics 

Poultry 


4 
2 


Econoinic entomology 


Principles of breeding. . . 


Bacteriology 


4 


Farm accounts 


2 




Do 


Education, elective 


3 




15 




3 




17 








18 



Chapter XIV. 

PROGRAM FOR DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL 

STANDARDS. 



Reiteration of the demand for standardization. — All the studies 
reported in the preceding chapters of this monograph make it clear 
that there is great need of a movement to standardize normal schools. 
Again it may be said, as in an earlier paragraph, that this demand 
for standardization is not to be confused with the demand that all 
normal schools be made alike. The organizations and entrance re- 
quirements of various normal schools may vary in accordance with 
the local demands and spheres of operation of the different institu- 
tions. In each case, however, the characteristics of the school should 
be defined. The student body will then find that other higher insti- 
tutions can deal equitably with their claims; the legislature will 
know more definitely the purposes for which it is appropriating 
funds; superintendents throughout the State will know more fully 
what kind of products they are to look for; and the community 
will understand and respect the normal school more fully than 
ever in the past. 

Standardization should be from within. — The question arises at 
once, Who is to do the work ? Outside agancies are not likely to suc- 
ceed, because wherever these agencies criticize an institution they 
stir up antagonisms rather than bring about reforms. Furthermore, 
if outside agencies compel reform through the arousal of public 
sentiment or through legislative action, there is likely to be a half- 
hearted or even unfriendly attitude on the part of normal-school 
faculties. Even a State superintendent or commissioner finds him- 
self unable to change normal schools as a result of his investigations 
without a long struggle, during which he has to bring the officers of 
the normal schools to take his point of view. 

This is equivalent to the demand that in all respects normal schools 
hecome scientific. — There can be no question whatever that normal 
schools ought to standardize themselves. These institutions would 
gain many indirect advantages, as well as direct advantages, from 
an effort to understand and define themselves. The normal school 
ought to be a center of vigorous study of all kinds of educational 
126 



DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL STANDARDS. 127 

institutions. Teachers who are going out into rural schools ought to 
learn during their normal courses to understand rural schools. 
Teachers who are going into urban schools should have these institu- 
tions clearly defined during their period of training. Teachers in 
service ought to be given courses in normal schools which will improve 
them in professional equipment. This task of defining other institu- 
tions will be most intelligently undertaken by that normal faculty 
which has made a serious effort to understand and define their own 
work. "When an officer of any educational institution begins to study 
his own functions, he develops an attitude and a method which carry 
him out to deal with all the problems of all educational institutions. 
There is nothing that will cultivate in normal-school teachers and 
presidents the attitude of scientific study of education more quickly 
or more completely than the study of the functions of their own 
institution. 

The indirect advantages above referred to would furnish sufficient 
justification for the urgent plea that normal schools study their own 
functions. The direct advantages need hardly be enumerated again 
in the concluding chapter of this study. It remains only to outline 
the methods which may be followed. 

Reports on organization and operations needed. — It is suggested 
that normal schools add to their publications a president's report. 
This report could be made a part of the annual catalogue, or it could 
be published separately, after the manner of most university presi- 
dents' reports. In some cases it might be desirable for the presidents 
of the normal schools in a given State to unite and issue a single 
joint report. 

Characteristics of the student body. — This president's report 
should give full information about the student body. A table should 
be given reporting explicitly the amount of training of each student 
at the time of his or her admission to the normal school. There 
should be explanatory statements indicating how these facts are 
ascertained at the time of admission, how far irregularities are toler- 
ated, and how these irregularities are administered. In short, the 
whole problem of admissions should be exposed to the light of unxe- 
lenting publicity. There can be very little doubt that one of the most 
serious difficulties in transferring students from normal schools to 
colleges or universities arises directly out of the irregularity of 
admissions. It is not here argued that admission requirements should 
be of one sort or the other, but it is argued that they should be clearly 
defined. 

Geographical studies should einphasize academic matters. — Further 
information about the student body which is valuable, although not 
so valuable as that relating to admissions, is the information regard- 
ing geographical distribution. This is important as showing the 
15607°— 16 9 



128 STANDAEDIZIXG STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

lange of influence of the institution. This study of geographical 
distribution can be made academically the more productive if a 
study is made of the high schools and other institutions with which 
the normal school comes into contact. Thus, if a normal school 
draws its students from a region liberally supplied with standard 
high schools, its attitude toward secondary courses within the walls 
of the normal school should be very different from that of an institu- 
tion drawing its students from a region in which there are no standard 
high schools. The whole problem of standardizing high schools is 
thus seen to be one with which the normal schools should concern 
themselves. Up to this time normal schools have been satisfied to 
leave the high schools to the supervision of colleges. In no less degree 
is it important that normal schools should study neighboring col- 
leges. The time is rapidly passing when communities will support 
rival institutions of higher education. Economy dictates that there 
be clearness of definition in dealing with colleges. It is not surprising 
that up to this time normal schools have been out of contact with col- 
leges, for the normal schools have been different in organization and 
support from the colleges. In recent years, however, the differen- 
tiating characteristics have been more and more eclipsed by those 
common purposes and modes of operation which have grown up in 
all higher institutions. Normal schools in some quarters are demand- 
ing admission. to organizations to which they have not up to this 
time been admitted. The normal schools undoubtedly have a fair 
case, but they can be fully recognized only when they define them- 
selves. Like all late comers, they will have to make their case; no 
one is going to do the work for them. It is urgently recommended, 
accordingly, that a geographical study be made, emphasizing the 
academic relations which the geographical surroundings impose on 
the school. 

Other tables showing the ages, sex, and rate of progress through 
the normal-school classes would be most illuminating. 

Studies of faculty should be detailed and explicit. — A second 
general line of information which should be supplied relates to the 
faculty. The faculty should be described in detail with reference to 
its training, experience, present activities, and literary or scientific 
productivity. In earlier chapters comment has been made on the 
relatively small number of faculty members with academic degrees, 
when normal schools are contrasted with universities and colleges. 
There are doubtless other compensating facts in many cases, but at 
present these facts are inaccessible. Furthermore, there is a wide- 
spread skepticism on the part of colleges and universities with regard 
to the qualifications of normal faculties. Normal schools can not 
afford to ignore this skepticism or remain silent with regard to the 
requirements that are set up when new members of the faculties are 



DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL STANDARDS. 129 

being chosen. The facts should be brought out. Either each member 
of the faculty should be fully described or tables should be presented 
showing training and experience. 

What does the faculty do besides teaching? — Productivity is one 
of the surest signs of intellectual vitality and strength. This pro- 
ductivity takes the form at times of scientific or literary output. At 
other times productivity means work on committees or lectures in 
extension courses or at teachers' meetings. There is on the part of 
many practical school people a fine scorn for research, it being held 
by them to be a mark of undue absorption in abstractions when a man 
carries on investigations. The answer to those who criticize research 
is that research is at present one of the best-defined evidences of in- 
tellectual vigor. Doubtless there is great intellectual vigor exhibited 
in other w^ays. It is legitimate to ask that the normal school bring out 
this fact in defining the activities of its faculty. If the best members 
of each normal school faculty could be defined in such a way that the 
educational profession at large could know what activities are legiti- 
mate and demanded, there would perhaps arise a new professional 
class superior to the research professor now so eagerly sought in 
higher institutions of learning. In the meantime one notes that the 
undefined class of normal-school teachers does not produce so much 
useful general intellectual material as ought to be expected. One 
would naturally expect textbooks and courses of study and new 
methods and carefully evaluated descriptions of school work issuing 
from normal schools. The fact is that very little material of this 
type comes from such sources. Furthermore, what does come is not 
clearly exhibited, so as to become a professional ideal. It is recom- 
mended that lists of outside activities be published. 

Studies of faculty activities icill lead to better conditions for pro- 
ductice icoj'l-. — It was pointed out in an earlier chapter that the 
teaching programs of members of normal-school faculties are longer 
than the programs of faculties in other higher institutions. The 
policy of each normal school in this matter of hours of work should 
be clearly set forth. The comnmnit}'- has of late been much interested 
in criticisms passed upon higher institutions because of the supposed 
delinquency of university professors. There can be no doubt that the 
normal school ought as a pul)lic institution to concern itself in this 
problem of defining the duties of an academic servant of the com- 
munity. The failure of the public and of higher institutions to define 
clearly the legitimate demands in this matter affects the intellectual 
life of all grades of schools. No one knows how to frame demands 
which may be properly imposed on faculty members. Often a nor- 
mal-school president does not know how much professional study 
goes with any of the positions to which he appoints. Members of 



130 STANDARDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

the faculty have no adequate professional standards. In public 
schools attention is being given to such matters in rapidly increasing 
degree. Normal schools should assume leadership. 

The course of study more in need of standardization than any 
other aspect of normal-school organization, — The third general 
problem which should be taken up in the report is the problem of the 
course of study. For purposes of this discussion a sharp distinc- 
tion may be made between the courses in education and the other 
courses which deal with the subject matter to be taught in schools. 
The education courses in American normal schools have traditionally 
consisted of the history of education and a course or series of courses 
in psychology, with some courses possibly in general methods. It is 
the general consensus of opinion m most school systems that the nor- 
mal-school work given in the history of education is very barren of 
results. Hardly less common are the criticisms which are made of 
the kinds of psychology usually taught. It would seem in the pres- 
ence of these criticisms that it is altogether desirable that the various 
normal schools describe to each other clearly what they are under- 
taking in their courses in education. The name of the textbook used 
is very frequently helpful in determining what has been accomplished. 
The American Psychological Association, through one of its com- 
mittees, made an elaborate report some years ago showing what is un- 
dertaken in psychology in normal schools. There can be no doubt at 
all that the normal schools are very vitally interested in a definition 
of the subject matter of these courses, and yet it is quite impossible 
to gather from any of the reports that are at hand any clear state- 
ment of what is undertaken. 

New courses in education needed. — It is probably true that the 
courses in education should be of a somewhat different type, and there 
is a large demand at the present moment for the drafting by expe- 
rienced normal-school teachers of outlines which may be used in 
training immature students. Most of these students fresh from 
the high school do not realize at all the problems that are to con- 
front the teacher. They should probably be given an introductory 
course in which educational problems and methods are defined. 
There should be a very great emphasis upon the empirical material 
which is now at hand in superintendents' reports and in the special 
studies which have been made of such matters as retardation and 
elimination. Problems of industrial education, the problems of the 
modification of the course of study, are all vital problems which the 
teacher ought to understand. And yet, the ordinary normal school 
gives very little attention to these great reform movements which 
are going forward in the schools, and the professional courses deal 
with the remoter periods of the history of education and with the 
reformers that are so far back in time and in spirit that the normal 



DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL STANDARDS. 131 

school student has no contact through these remote studies with the 
community and the classroom problems with which he or she will 
come in contact immediately on graduation. Whether psychology 
shall be taught as a separate subject or in the modified form as an 
examination of the mental processes Avhich appear in school children 
during school processes can, of course, be discussed as an academic 
issue, or it can be discussed as a very vital problem of the course of 
study. xV comparative statement of what is undertaken now in 
various normal schools would be very helpful in bringing about a 
rapid modification and an enlargement of this type of work. 

Suhject-TYiatter courses should he organized so as to stimulate fro- 
gressive thinking in inature students. — Even more chaotic conditions 
are found in the subject-matter courses in arithmetic and grammar and 
geography. There are some normal schools in which the subject is 
frankly review^ed, on the theory that the student has forgotten since 
his elementary course everything which he knew about the subject 
matter itself. In other normal schools there is relatively very little 
review, or such reviewing as is undertaken is recommended to the 
student as the subject of private stud}'. In these normal schools it 
is the method which is for the most part discussed. Sometimes this 
method consists in the exploitation of some pa-rticular scheme of 
presentation which is the hobby of the normal-school teachers. In 
other cases the discussion of method is on a somewhat broader basis, 
and a comparative study is made of the different methods of pre- 
senting the different distributions of time in different school systems, 
etc. Here again there ought to be a full discussion of principles. 
Each year a report from the normal school ought to be made of the 
fundamental principles which are recognized in organizing these 
courses in subject matter. It is perfectl}' evident that a course in 
arithmetic is not a suitable subject on which to exercise the growing 
intelligence of a student who has graduated from high school. He 
ought presumably to have a very large part of the equipment that is 
necessary for the course in arithmetic. On the other hand, there can 
be no doubt at all that a study of arithmetic can be formulated in 
such a way as to give the student some knowledge of the principles 
of number as well as an experience that will be of very great value 
to him in his teaching and the organization of this material. "We 
have no adequate series of textbooks dealing Avith this problem. The 
ingenuity of normal-school teachers should be turned in the direc- 
tion of formulating this material, and one of the most stimulating 
methods of turning attention in this direction would be a discussion 
by able leaders in normal-school education of the problems and 
methods of this type of course. 

The prohlem of " culture " courses or " general " courses not 
solved. — Finally, in dealing with the normal-school course of study 



132 STANDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

the question always arises, How miicli academic matter should be 
introduced? It has been indicated in an earlier report that some 
normal schools give a good deal of academic matter. Courses in Latin 
are not uncommon in these normal schools, even when it is not ex- 
pected that the students who take the courses will ever teach the 
subject. The relation of this academic material to the problem of the 
training of secondary-school teachers is also an important question 
which certainly in many normal schools needs very much more com- 
plete discussion than it has at the present time. There should be a 
report of the distinctions between academic courses and professional 
courses. When the North Central Association of Colleges and Sec- 
ondary Schools asked the normal schools reporting to it to define 
clearly their courses, distinguishing between those that were academic 
in character and those that were professional, a very unsatisfactory 
set of replies was received. Evidently the distinction had never been 
drawn in the minds of some of the normal-school i)residents who 
made the reports to the association. This distinction should be made 
the subject of discussion and definition, so that ultimately it will be 
perfectly clear what is needed for the professional and what is needed 
for the academic training of students. 

Practice teaching as a central factor in the course of study. — Great 
emphasis was laid in an earlier chapter on the problem of practice 
teaching and its organization in the practice school. What the labora- 
tory is to the course in science, what the shop is to the course in en- 
gineering, the practice school is to the normal school. And yet it is 
very difficult indeed from the reports of many normal schools to ex- 
tract satisfactory information with regard to the actual conduct of 
practice work. In an article entitled Practice Teaching in Model 
Schools, published by Mr. E. E. Lewis, of the State Normal School 
of Charleston, 111., in the Elementary School Teacher of May, 1913 
(pp. 434-444) , it is brought out clearly that there is the widest diver- 
gence among the model schools connected with normal schools 
throughout the country. For example, Mr. Lewis makes one sum- 
mary, as follows, on page 438 of the Elementary School Teacher : 

To summarize, 53 per cent of the State normal schools replying require the 
equivalent of three terms, or one full year, of practice teaching; 34 per cent, 
the equivalent of two terms ; 8 per cent, the equivalent of one term ; and 5 per 
cent, less than one term. There are possibly two institutions which require 
more than one year of practice teaching. The median institution requires three 
terms or one year. 

Mr. Lewis also goes further in his article to show that the distribu- 
tion of this practice teaching with reference to the methods courses is 
very different in different institutions : " The two prevailing tenden- 
cies are, first, to have practice teaching taken simultaneously with 
methods, and, second, to have practice teaching follow immediately 



DEVELOPMENT OF NOEMAL-SCHOOL STANDARDS. 133 

the course in methods. The second plan is more common." Further 
details of the article need not be repeated here. Enough to say the 
practices of different normal schools differ Avidel,v, as indicated also 
in the earlier chapters of this report. Why should there not be in 
accessible form for every normal school a definition of its laboratory 
and of the way in which it requires students to attend the exercises 
of this laboratory? Furthermore, a definition of the policy of the 
institution and its relation to schools would be of very great value. 
It is noted in an earlier chapter that some schools do give a defini- 
tion of this sort, but it is very desirable that all the normal schools 
should make a clear statement of their relations to public institutions 
with regard to their practice work. 

Especially has it been shown in this report that there should be 
clear and explicit tables setting forth the number of children accessi- 
ble for practice work and the number of practice teachers who are 
supervised by a single critic teacher or normal instructor. There 
should also be a clear and explicit statement of the way in which this 
supervisory work is related to the other engagements of the normal- 
school teacher. If critic work is conjoined with instruction in the 
subject matter given in the normal school, this should be set forth in 
such a way that the policy of the school will be perfectly clear. In 
short, a definite statistical statement, together with a descriptive 
justification of the practices of the school, should be made a part of 
the regular report of each normal school, and it is recommended that 
this material be worked out in such fashion that a general comparison 
shall easily be possible. 

Studenfs prograTn is closely related to the type of work tohich he 
can do. — There is another body of information with regard to the 
administration of the course of study which should be brought out 
in these normal-school reports. A statement should be made of the 
amount of work which a student is expected to do in a year of work. 
There can be no doubt at all that in many normal schools the 
faculty, relying on the maturity of the students, administers a very 
heavy course of study. In all probability, it would be found that 
more hours are taken each week by normal-school students than are 
commonly taken by college students. It may be entirely legitimate 
to call upon normal-school students who are taking a professional 
course to exert themselves more strenuously than college students do. 
On the other hand, there can be no doubt at all that the student who 
would take advantage of leisure for reading and for general prepara- 
tion of himself along the lines of his own selection is deprived of 
this opportunity by the heavy course which he is required to take in 
regular routine. Some definition of the policy of institutions in this 
matter would help greatly in adjusting the relation of normal courses 
to college courses. Very frequently a student who presents himself 



134 STAISTDAEDIZING STATE NOEMAL SCHOOLS. 

for advanced standing in the university brings from the normal 
school a prodigious number of courses. This immediately arouses 
the skepticism of the university faculty, because they recognize 
the impossibility of taking so large a number of courses without 
curtailing the work in each. A definition, therefore, with regard to 
the amount of work of the student should parallel the definition that 
is called for above on the amount of work that is required of mem- 
bers of the faculty. An explicit tabular statement of the number of 
students who are taking four hours, five hours, six hours, etc., each 
day, would give a definite body of information which is not now at 
hand. That such information is not supplied by the colleges should 
not furnish justification for its omission from this report. The 
appearance of this type of material in normal-school reports would 
imdoubtedly stimulate a discussion of the same problem in high 
schools and in universities, and anyone who makes a study of these 
institutions realizes that it will very shortly be necessary to canvass 
the whole problem of the amount of work that a student can prop- 
erly be called upon to do each day. The relation of this discussion 
to outside activities is also clear. A definition of the social life of 
the students can hardly be given with clearness unless some atten- 
tion is given to the amount of work which is required in the courses 
of the institution itself. By initiating this studj', the normal schools 
can become leaders in an important general educational study. 

Another general educational jirohlem is that of the elective 
course. — A further item of information with regard to the students 
and their places in various courses is especially profitable when one 
considers the contrast between a normal school and the ordinary col- 
lege course. In recent years the college course has come to be more 
and more an elective course. On the other hand, the professional 
schools have all required a much more rigid adherence to a prescribed 
series of studies. In the normal schools the conflict between academic 
and professional courses has frequently expressed itself in the fact 
that certain courses are required, while others are made elective, and 
the difference in equipment between different normal schools may fre- 
quently consist in the larger number of elective courses which are of- 
fered. These elective courses open the way for a wide differentiation 
of the course of study pursued by individual students and undoubt- 
edly constitute the phase of normal-school organization which has 
brought these institutions most into competition with neighboring 
colleges. Furthermore, elective courses always bring with them the 
problem of the distribution of students of different degrees of ma- 
turity. Wlien an elective course is open to students who have for some 
time been pursuing work in a given institution and at the same time 
to students who have just entered, there is likely to be so great a dif- 
ference in the maturity of the student body that the administration of 



w 



DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL STANDARDS. 135 

the course is serioiisl}' complicated. Tables showing the kind of 
students admitted to certain courses, the emphasis which is laid in the 
natural course of election upon certain parts of the work in the nor- 
mal school, and a clear statement of the registration in all of the re- 
quired work would give a view of the distribution of the student 
body which it is very desirable to have. 

Courses for mature students. — Furthermore, it is also important in 
estimating the work of the normal school to draw a sharp distinction 
between those students who are preparing to teach for the first time 
and those who are preparing in a larger way to increase their profes- 
sional usefulness. In general it may be said that the summer school, 
or the summer quarter of the normal school, is very different in its 
character from the regular quarters, and throughout the year there 
are students who are taking courses of an advanced type because they 
wish to become supervisors rather than because they wish to enter the 
2:)rofession for the first time. A distribution of students throughout 
the year and a distribution of the students with reference to the ends 
which they wish to achieve through graduation should be made in 
such a way that one who examines the registration of a normal school 
shall distinguish between these different types of students and their 
length of residence during the year. 

Problem of costs. — The period during which a student remains in 
the normal school is very important in determining the cost of normal- 
school instruction. It is desirable that every communit}'' should know 
what it costs per capita to educate students in any public institution. 
At the present time it is almost impossible, as indicated in an earlier 
chapter, to determine from the statistics of registration how many 
students are present in a normal school at an}^ given time. The 
average attendance or the attendance for each month should be given 
in such a clear-cut way that it will be possible to determine what the 
actual instructorial activities of the institution are. A large summer 
quarter does not legitimately represent the actual work of an institu- 
tion. On the other hand, there can be no doubt at all that the con- 
stituency which comes to normal schools during tlie summer is very 
important in determining the character of work that is done in the 
schools around that normal school. 

Clearness in these matters is all that should be required. It is not 
necessary to lay down any rule, and there should be no effort to 
restrict the activit}^ of a normal school in dealing with the different 
types of students which come to it. But it is desirable that these 
different types should be clearly defined. 

Distribution of graduates. — Finally, a normal school should in- 
form itself, and should inform the State which it serves, definitely 
with regard to the distribution of its gi'aduates. The first question 
which here arises is the question of distribution to elementary or sec- 



136 STANDARDIZING STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

ondary schools. In the second place, the question immediately arises 
whether these normal-school graduates go into city schools or into 
rural schools. A clear statement on these matters would do much to 
determine the policy of the State with regard to appropriations and 
Avith regard to the maintenance of normal schools. There can be no 
doubt at all that in the majority of cases graduates of normal schools 
go to those city systems which are much better qualified to provide 
themselves with experienced teachers than are rural districts; and 
there can be no doubt at all that the number of graduates of normal 
schools who go into high schools constitutes a ver}^ genuine problem 
of public policy. In some quarters there are small high schools which 
can not draw their staff from the neighboring State universities. The 
normal schools are here called upon to perform a very genuine service 
to the community. To what extent this service is demanded we do 
not at the present time know, and we shall not know imtil definite 
statements can be made of the actual disposition of graduates of our 
normal schools. 

The problem of the relation of normal schools to high-school 
training classes appears also at this point, for if the normal school 
can not supply the teachers necessary for rural districts, other means 
will have to be devised for the training of teachers. The whole 
problem of an adequate supply for the State, therefore, connects 
itself with this investigation of the disposition of the graduates. 

Some diagrams of geographical distribution ought to be given, but 
here, as in an earlier instance, it is important to keep in mind the fact 
that an academic distribution is of more significance than the merely: 
geographical distribution. What kind of schools these graduates 
serve is a much more important question to raise and answer than the 
mere question of the geographical distribution in terms of miles away 
from the institution that trains them. Tables of this sort should be 
clearly presented in the reports of the normal school. 

Standardization is an elaborate process and may be slow. — The 
recommendations which have been made in the foregoing paragraphs 
call for a number of elaborate studies, and it will doubtless be objected 
by those who are in charge of the normal schools that it is not easily 
possible to supply the information which is here demanded. It will 
especially be objected that to supply all of this information in a single 
report would require a devotion on the part of the president and 
faculty of a normal school to investigation which is altogether out of 
proportion to their leisure and to the demands which are made upon 
them for routine work. It must be admitted immediately that an 
effort on the part of any given normal school to answer all of these 
questions in one year would entail a great amount of labor. It is the 
meaning of the authors of this monograph that the labor would be 
amply repaid in the establishment of general confidence in the admin- 



DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL-SCHOOL STANDARDS. 137 

istration of the school and in the classification that would come as a 
result of all of these investigations of all of the relations of the insti- 
tution and of the student body. But if the recommendations can not 
all of them be acted upon at once, it is still urged that a gradual accu- 
mulation of all of these types of information is certainly possible. 
If one or tAvo of the tables above recommended could be prepared in a 
given year and could be inserted in the catalogue of the normal school, 
and if the practice of collecting such information became general, 
comparison would immediately arise which would stimulate further 
investigations and would help to secure the necessary appropriations 
from legislatiu-es to carry on these investigations on a larger scale. 
The experience of every State has, in recent 3'ears, made it clear that 
there is public demand for a clearer definition of these institutions. 
The necessity of maintaining relationships with other institutions has 
been dwelt upon again and again in this report, and the desirability 
of supph'ing a larger body of teachers is becoming one of the impres- 
sive problems of modern educational life. 

Lack of uniformity is advantageous if this is supplemented by 
careful scientific studies. — The United States does less to train its 
teachers than any other great civilized nation, and there is less uni- 
formity in the treatment of requirements for the schools than in 
any other nation. To be sure, these variations in organization and 
this lack of system bring certain advantages and give the school 
sj'stem of the United States a certain flexibility which other sys- 
tems do not exhibit, but there is no reason why with the advan- 
tages of flexibility there should not come a clear definition of 
purposes and a clear account of the actual achievements of such 
system as we have. The recommendations made in this chapter are 
made with a view to securing this type of information. Flexibility 
which is of a thoroughly self-conscious type is greatly to be desired. 
Flexibility which is controlled by accidents and by chance require- 
ments in particular localities and is not understood and is not clearly 
defined in any general Avay is a disadvantage rather than an advan- 
tage,' and all of the recommendations which have been made in these 
paragraphs aim to eliminate so far as possible the purely accidental 
character of normal-school organization. 



OTHER PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION 
DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT OF THIS BULLETIN. 

[Note. — With the exceptions indicated, tlie documents named below will be sent free of 
charge upon application to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. Those 
marked with an asterisk (*) are no longer available for free distribution, but may be had 
of the Supei'intendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, upon 
payment of the price stated. Remittances should be made in coin, currency, or money 
order. Stamps are not accepted.] 

*A teachers' professional library. Classified list of 100 titles. 5 cts. (Bulletin, 1909, 

no. 8.) 
*A course of study for the preparation of rural school-teachers. F. Mutchler and W. J, 

Craig. 5 cts. (Bulletin, 1912, no. 1.) 
^Training courses for rural teachers. A. C. Monahan and R. II. Wright. 5 cts. (Bulle- 
tin, 1913, no. 2.) 
*The training of teachers in England, Scotland, and Germany. C. H. Judd. 10 cts. 

(Bulletin, 1914, no. 35. ) 
City training .schools for teachers. F. A. Manny. (Bulletin, 1914, no. 47.) 
Efficiency and preparation of rural school-teachers. H. W. Foght. (Bulletin, 1914, 

no. 49.) 
The training of elementary school-teachers in mathematics. I. L. Kandel. (Bulletin, 

1915, no. 39.) 
Normal schools. (Statistics.) Annual Report, 1914, vol. 2, chap. G. (Available as a 

separate publication. ) 
The training of teachers. S. C. Parker. Annual Report, 1915, vol. 1, chap. 7. (Available 

as a separate publication.) 

138 



INDEX. 

Academic high-school departments, tendency to expand, 100. 

Administrative control, 32-46. 

Agricultiire, course for special teachers, 125. 

Boards of control (State), 34-36; appointment, tenure and size, 34-35; qualifications 
of members, 35-36; value of types, 36-40. 

Bohannon, E. W., on best type of normal control, 38. 

California State Normal, Los Angeles, statistics of graduation, 108. 

Cape Girardeau, Mo., course in agriculture, 125. 

Carnegie Foundation, and teacher-training, 10-12. 

Charleston, 111., practice teaclung, 95. 

Chico, Cal., covurse of study, 92. 

Claxton, P. P., letter of transmittal, 5. 

College credit, 82-83. 

Colleges and normal schools, comparison of students, 13-14; statistical comparison, 
16-21. 

Colleges and universities, effect of parallel development of departments of educa- 
tion, 8-9. 

Commercial education, 124. 

Community practice facilities, 52-55. 

Costs, normal school, 75-78. 

Courses of study, agriculture, 125; commercial education, 124; high-school graduates, 
79-86; home economics, 122-123; manual training, 122; Missouri, 119; New York, 
116-117; Stout Institute, Wis., 114-115; trades, 124-125; training school, 89-94. 
See also Standardization. 

Critic teachers, 88-89. 

Degree courses, tliree-year, discredit normal schools, 104; fovur-year for elementary 
teachers, 103-104. 

Degrees, advanced, held by members of faculties of normal schools, 17. 

De Kalb, 111., course of study, 90-91; practice teaching, 49; salaries of principal 
officers, 72. 

Departments of education, colleges and imiversities, effect of parallel develop- 
ment, 8-9. 

Directors, salaries, 88. 

Domestic education, 122-123. 

Efficiency, general demand for, 9. 

Electives, 83-84, 134-135. 

Emporia, practice teaching, 96. 

Endowment, productive, 19-20. 

Faculties, 17-18, 65-74. 

Felmley, David, on best type of normal control, 38-39. 

Finegan, T. E., on local control, 34. 

Foght, H. W., on training of riu-al teachers, 97. 

Gemmill, W. H., on best type of normal-school control, 37. 

Graduates, distribution, 135-136. 

Graduates and students, 56-64. 

Green, J. M., on best tj'pe of normal-school control, 36. 

139 



140 INDEX. 

Henry, D. R., A study of State normal-school control, 32^1. 

High-school graduates, general coiu-ses of study, 79-86; percentages of graduation 
requirements, 85-86. 

High-school students, elimination, 59-64. 

High-school teachers, training and conferring of degrees, 99-104. 

Home economies, 122-123. 

Idaho, improvement in normal-school work, 59-60; teachers' salaries, 71. 

Illinois, eliminating high-school students, 62-63. 

Indiana, survey of normal schools, 10-12. 

Indiana State Nonnal School, students, 27. 

Industrial training, 112-115. 

Kansas, normal-school system changed by State administrative board, 44-46. 

Keene Normal School, N. H., location, 24. 

Keith, J. H., on best type of normal control, 37. 

Kendall, C. N., on normal schools, 27. 

Kirk, J. R., on best type of normal control, 39-40. 

Lewis, E. E., on practice teaching, 132. 

Location of normal schools, 22-24. 

Los Angeles, faculties in normal schools, 66-67; normal school, home economics 
coiu-se, 123. 

Louisiana, requirements of admission, 60. 

McKenny, Charles, on best type of normal control, 37. 

McMurry, C. A., on relation of coiu-se of study to city schools, 90-91. 

Manual training, 122. 

Massachusetts, coiu-se of study, 81; eliminating high-school students, 60-61; high- 
school teacl\ers, 101; instructors employed in normal schools, 66; normal-school 
costs, 75-77; normal schools, 28-29; status of normal schools, 43^4; survey of 
normal schools, 12-13; teachers' salaries, 71. 

Massachusetts Normal Art School, organization and activities, 109-110. 

Maxwell, G. E., on best type of normal control, 37. 

Mayville, N. Dak., number of teachers of special subjects, 106; practice teaching in 
public schools, 49. 

Michigan, special training of teachers, 117-118; teachers' salaries, 71-72. 

Mileage and car fares, paid to students, 30. 

Minnesota, foiu-year coiuses for elementary teachers, 103. 

Missouri, normal-school statistics, 56-58; normal schools controlled by local board, 
39^0; special training of teachers, 119-120; svirvey of normal schools, 10-12. 

Morrison, State Supt., on normal schools, 22. 

Mount Pleasant (Mich.) Normal School, graduates, 107. 

Negroes, normal and industrial training, 113-114. 

New Hampshii'e, course of study, 80-90; practice-teacliing facilities, 47-49; status of 
normal schools, 43; siu-vey of normal schools, 12. 

New Jersey, teachers in special and vocational subjects, 105-106, 116. 

New York, special normal-training courses, 116-117; State-local type of control, 34. 

Normal-school standards, program, 126-137. 

Normal schools, maintenance parallels, general education policy, 31; three types, 82. 

North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, number of State normal 
schools reporting to, 16. 

North Dakota, eliminating high-school students, 63-64. 

North Dakota State Normal and Industrial School, statistics, 112. 

Northern Illinois Normal School, statistics of graduation, 107. 

Organization, determined by accidental, 7-8. 

Oshkosh, Wis., course of study, 81. 

Oxford (Ohio) Normal School, course for special teachers of manual arts, 122. 



INDEX. 141 

Pennsylvania, sun^ey of normal schools, 9. 

Plymouth Normal School, location, 23-24; finances, 43. 

Practice teaching, 47-55; organization, 87-96; standard for measuring facilities, of a 
community, 52-55. 

Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College, Tex., statistics, 113-114. 

President, most dominant influence in many systems, 42. 

Providence, R. I., practice teacliing, 49-52. 

Public schools, practice teaching, 49. 

Purpose, number, and geographical distribution of services, 22-31. 

Eaihoad fares, paid to students, 30. 

Rhode Island, eliminating liigh-school students, 61-62. 

Roberts, H. H., criticism of unit control, 38. 

Salaries, teachers. See Teachers' salaries. 

Salem (Mass.) Normal School, coiuse for commercial teachers, 124. 

Secondary school, eastern normal school as, 14. 

Snedden, David, critical study of Massachusetts normal schools, 43^4; on best type 
of normal control, 38; on normal schools, 22, 28-29; on training of secondary teach- 
ers, 101-103. 

Standardization, external causes stimulating movement, 8; meaning of term, 14; pro- 
gram for development, 126-137. 

State Manual Training Normal School, statistics, 110-112. 

State normal schools, faculties, 65-74; number in each State, 28. 

Stout Institute, Wis., statistics, 114-115. 

Students and graduates, 56-64. 

Supcr\-ision, standardized routine, 94. 

Sui"veys of normal schools, Indiana, 10-12; Massachusetts, 12-13; Missouri, 10-12, 13; 
Pennsylvania, 9; Vermont, 12; Wisconsin, 9-10. 

Teacher-training, liigh schools, 99-104; rural schools, 97-98; special siibject'=!, 105-125; 
statement by Carnegie Foundation, 10-12. 

Teachers, critic, importance of securing, 73-74; need of competent, 65-66; public- 
school experience, 69-70. See also Faculties. 

Teachers' salaries, 70-73. 

Terre Haute (Ind.) State Normal School, distribution of students, 25-26. 

Time distributions, course of study, 84-85. 

Trades, coiuses for teachers, 124-125. 

Trenton, N. J., coiu'se of study, 81. 

Unit control, 38. 

Universities, relation of western normal schools to, 14. 

Valley City (N. Dak.) Normal School, coiu"se in home economies, 122-123. 

Vermont, survey of normal schools, 12. 

Virginia, improvement in rural schools, 60. 

Winona, Minn., coiuse of study, 92. 

Wintlirop (S. C.) Normal and Industrial College, number of positions secured for grad- 
uates, 106-107. 

Wisconsin, Mstory of development of differentiated courses, 81-82; history of normal 
system, 10; survey of normal schools, 9-10. 

Ypsilanti, Mich., faculty of normal school, 67. 

o 



'^l^^ 



